MSU’s Eric Hill: Mississippi Could Be The Tech Capital of the Country

Eric Hill, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneur and Outreach at Mississippi State University, published a noteworthy piece on Medium this week, where he had a ton to say about the potential that he’s seeing in Mississippi’s entrepreneurial ecosystem—and what it’ll take to make our state the best in the nation.

(Hill not only encourages MSU-affiliated student and faculty entrepreneurs, but he is a bona fide entrepreneur himself. Hill co-founded Coflyt, a company that offers software to make it easier for partners to co-own and maintain general aviation airplanes. The company recently raised $500,000.)

“I believe that Mississippi — now — has one of the best opportunities in the country to become a leader in creating technology companies,” he writes. “We just don’t believe it yet.”

Hill points out that Mississippi has a low cost of living, resourceful entrepreneurs, and the ability to outsource for “commoditized” software development as well as any other state in the union. He writes that his “napkin math” tells him that a dollar invested in a Mississippi company can last about three times longer than one trying to survive in pricey San Francisco and that he believes that Mississippi has the “people, infrastructure, drive and ideas” to get ahead.

He also lays out the challenges that he says “stand in the way” of Mississippi being number one. Those things are a lack of startup coaches, an educated and “portable” workforce, real financial incentives, support for founders after failed launches, and what he calls a “winner’s attitude.”

While noting that the Mississippi Seed Fund managed by Innovate Mississippi is the only real “cash on the table” for scalable technology companies, Hill points to the St Louis’ Arch Grants program, a startup competition that offers $50,000 to early-stage startups that locate their headquarters in St. Louis (and otherwise win the grants), with opportunities, he notes, for follow-on funding.

Hill also steps out to say that Mississippi needs to be “a great place to live and work for everyone,” with emphasis on the idea that we can’t just talk about the stuff we have that’s “like something in Nashville.” Instead, the goal is to solve the problem of “what would it take to get someone under 40 to say, wow, I’m glad I live in Mississippi.”

The entire piece is thoughtful and worth your time, and we appreciate the shout out from Hill. We’re encouraged to keep doing more to make the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Mississippi the best in the nation.