In 2020, Mississippi musician-turned-founder Seth Power launched Tribly to help musicians build direct relationships with their fans, bypassing the algorithms that dominate today's music marketing. While early iterations of the product leaned into blockchain and NFTs during the crypto boom, a market crash pushed the company to rethink its foundation.…
One of the best parts of my role as Marketing Manager at Innovate Mississippi is spotlighting founders who are solving real problems—often creatively—right here in our state. Most days, I tell the stories of startups with big visions and plans to scale. But sometimes, a founder walks in with an…
In 2021, CampusKnot was at a crossroads. The startup, founded in 2015 in Starkville, Mississippi, had already been in the market for several years, experimenting with features and business models in the higher education space. But something wasn't quite clicking, says CEO Rahul Gopal. The product had features professors liked…
iQSports began because Andrew Doyle, sitting in a press box serving as an assistant high school coach, decided it'd be faster to type the plays he was tracking than to jot them down. He started in Word, but that only helped so much. When he switched to Excel and started…
If you've ever booked a real estate photographer, you know the pain points: scheduling delays, inconsistent results, and long turnaround times for media delivery. Home Tours Pro, a Mississippi-based startup founded by Jeff Smith and Mark Davis, is tackling all that head-on with an ambitious vision to automate and de-skill…
For Tyler Anthony and Thomas White, the journey to launching their first product, Switch 1.0, started long before their company, Duet Technology (or DueTT), was even an idea. The two met at the "Summer Bridge" engineering camp before their freshman year at Mississippi State University and quickly became friends. While Anthony was ping…
Earlier this year, we challenged Mississippi's most innovative minds to push the boundaries of advanced manufacturing—and they delivered. Entrepreneurs from across the state submitted groundbreaking technologies designed to optimize processes, enhance efficiency, and redefine the future of manufacturing. The judging is complete, and the SmartTech MS Advanced Manufacturing Prize Competition has reached…
Mississippi-based entrepreneur Rahul Gopal, the visionary behind CampusKnot, has been selected as one of just eight companies to join The Idea Village’s prestigious 2025 VILLAGEx accelerator! This highly competitive program brings together a diverse group of high-growth startups, each driven by bold ideas, strong teams, and a commitment to making a lasting…
Magnolia Tribune has published a fantastic story about Nate Venarske and his startup, Automatic Mosquito Ovitrap, a participant in Innovate Mississippi's CoBuilders accelerator program. Huge thanks to writer Lynne Jeter for covering Nate's journey! While studying biosystems engineering at Mississippi State University, Nate developed the Automatic Mosquito Ovitrap, designed to combat pesticide-resistant mosquitoes.…
Innovate Mississippi was thrilled to participate in the first ConnectMS (ConnectMS.org) convening at Community Bank headquarters in Flowood, where representatives from the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA), the Mississippi Small Business Development Center Network (SBDC) and Innovate Mississippi launched their ambitious collaborative program. Through the ConnectMS.org website, startups and small businesses…