Spotlight Stories • Innovate Mississippi

The winners featuring, from left, Dylan Adcox, Andrew Bradford, Julien Bourgeois, Dr. Josie Nicholson, and Dr. David Colby.

Celebrating Innovation in Oxford: Announcing the Winners of ‘Business Pitch 2025’

Innovate Mississippi was delighted to partner again with the Oxford‑Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation, the University of Mississippi, and the Mississippi Small Business Development Center Network for the fifth annual Oxford Pitch Competition, held Thursday, June 12, at the Oxford Conference Center. And we thank the Oxford Eagle for once again…

Read more about the article Meet Maranda Joiner: Guiding Mississippi’s Diverse Startup Founders Through Innovate Mississippi’s Founders Plus Program

Meet Maranda Joiner: Guiding Mississippi’s Diverse Startup Founders Through Innovate Mississippi’s Founders Plus Program

Maranda Joiner wears many hats—entrepreneur, speaker, author, and now lead facilitator for the Founders Plus program at Innovate Mississippi. A native of Jackson and co-founder of Succeed and Elevate, a non-profit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs, Maranda brings her professional expertise and personal commitment to helping women and minority entrepreneurs thrive in the startup…

Read more about the article Magnolia Tribune: Celebrating Mississippi’s First Graduates from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program

Magnolia Tribune: Celebrating Mississippi’s First Graduates from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program

Twenty-three Mississippi entrepreneurs reached a significant milestone in May, graduating from the inaugural Mississippi cohort of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses (10KSB) program. Held at the Old Capitol Museum, the ceremony celebrated small businesses' growing energy and impact statewide. We're especially proud to celebrate two Innovate Mississippi alums who…

Read more about the article Innovate Mississippi Applauds 2025 MSU Spring Startup Summit Organizers, Welcomes Continued Partnership with MSU E-Center

Innovate Mississippi Applauds 2025 MSU Spring Startup Summit Organizers, Welcomes Continued Partnership with MSU E-Center

Innovate Mississippi is pleased to have supported the 2025 MSU Spring Startup Summit—a dynamic showcase of innovation, entrepreneurship, and collaboration. Held on April 24th and 25th, this year's summit welcomed over 75 startups nationwide and awarded nearly $100,000 in prizes to emerging businesses. We also thank the MSU communications team and Emma McRae…

Bright Ideas & Bold Moves: Meet the Winners of The Bean Path Pitch Competition

Big thanks to Roslyn Anderson and the WLBT team for shining a spotlight on Mississippi’s rising entrepreneurs at The Bean Path's recent pitch competition. The competition offered two tracks "Innovation and Technology" and "Small and Diverse Business." The Tech & Innovation track focused on businesses that could be high-growth companies…

Tribly’s Pivot Powers Rapid Growth with Help from Mississippi’s Startup Ecosystem

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.…

Pitch Your Big Idea at Dawg Tank in Vicksburg

Mississippi State University at MCITy is calling on aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage startups to step into the spotlight at Dawg Tank, a regional pitch competition and official qualifier for the CoBuilders statewide accelerator program. The event will take place on Thursday, June 26 at 12 p.m., on the second floor of MCITy…

When the Story Becomes Personal: How One Mississippi Startup Helped Me Find Relief

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…

How a Critical Pivot Made CampusKnot One of the South’s Hottest EdTech Startups

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: Mississippi Startup Brings Real-Time Analytics to High School Athletics

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…