Tony Jeff: Mississippi is ‘The Start-up State’

635833795407067530-Tony-JeffPosted by: Contributing columnist, Clarion-Ledger, Business, January 20, 2016: I was at Gov. Phil Bryant’s inauguration last week and I listened with interest to his inaugural address when he went so far as to label Mississippi as “The Start-up State.” His exact line called for the audience to imagine “what I have labeled today as ‘the Start-up State.’ A state where business creators and entrepreneurs flourish. Where government is designed to support innovation and encourage economic growth.” I think Bryant was as much challenging the audience as he was making the case that Mississippi is already there, but it really is a label that can be justified considering our state’s long history of entrepreneurship and start-ups.

Not only was Mississippi ranked the No. 5 state in the country for entrepreneurship in the latest rankings a couple of years ago, but we also have a rich history of successful entrepreneurial ventures. Of course people are familiar with companies like Peavey, C Spire and Viking Range, but others like Triton, Bomgar, FNC and others have also helped put Mississippi in the national conversation around entrepreneurship.

Mississippi has been entrepreneurial across a very broad spectrum of industries that pretty much reflects our very diverse economy. From agricultural start-ups to telecommunications, logistics and software, Mississippi companies have started from scratch and built very successful companies. Even Mississippi’s shipbuilding history started with small, local companies in the 1700s and 1800s, although that industry has now grown to be mostly run by multi-national companies. People tend to start companies in industries and locations where they are already working, so it’s not surprising that the state’s start-ups would reflect the wide diversity of industries around the state.

Of course many people think of “start-ups” today often as technology start-ups, and we still have some work to do to build the ecosystem to support technology companies as they grow. We have done well in the beginning stages of starting technology companies, but many of these companies do have a more difficult time growing. For many, as they grow and need more and more technical employees and management with technical expertise, they’ve struggled to grow those functions here in the state. Several companies have grown and given good returns to founders and investors, like SmartSynch, Bomgar, ANI Pharmaceuticals and others, but nearly all of these types of companies struggle to get the talented employees they need as they grow significantly.

The key to attracting and retaining employees is often a community quality of life issue as much as anything else and communities that can create an attractive quality of life can continue to host even technology companies as they grow larger and larger. Those communities also tend to attract the best and brightest entrepreneurial minds who are likely to start companies.

Of course there are pockets where companies — even technology companies — can grow successfully. For years Bill Rayburn, one of the founders of FNC in Oxford talked about the fact that although they sometimes had a hard time getting prospective employees to visit Mississippi, once they visited, they were hooked. (That’s probably a familiar story to many Mississippi towns.) FNC now has more than 300 employees and growing. FNC also just became the poster child for a complete life-cycle of a technology start-up when it wasrecently acquired for $475 million – making 45of itsinvestors millionaires in the process. Its acquirer is reportedly still moving forward with FNC’s expansion plans to grow to 600 employees in Oxford in the near future.

Of course if we want to be known as “The Start-up State” we need to acknowledge that many Mississippi start-ups are created out of necessity, simply because we don’t have as many large multi-national or public companies here as many larger states have. The fact that we have a history of having to start our own companies may have been out of the need to survive, but it’s also powerful testimony to our ability to create opportunities when we need them most. That may be the best indication yet that we really should be known as “The Start-up State”, but we will all have to continue to work to be worthy of that label.

Tony Jeff is the president and CEO of Innovate Mississippi. He can be reached at tjeff@innovate.ms.