CONGRATULATIONS THRIVE ISLAND!

Winner of MSU Startup Summit 2019
sponsored by BankTEL Systems, Reed Foods, and Franklin Corporation

See All Awardees

Welcome to Startup Summit 2019

The MSU Startup Summit 2019 returns as one of the Southeast's top student startup competitions, featuring five divisions and a grand finale, hosted by the university's Center for Entrepreneurship & Outreach (MSU CEO).

The competition has teams from nearly every college on campus compete for cash prizes totaling $34,000 in seed funding! Business model pitches are evaluated on company technology, management, financials, and market by industry-respected leaders serving as judges from companies all across the region.

Colvard Student Union

Mississippi State, MS

April 8 - 12, 2019

04:00 PM - 07:00 PM

Startup Teams

and entrepreneurs

Over $30,000

in prizes and seed money

SCHEDULE

Join us for an exciting week of competition divisions, all leading to the BankTEL Grand Finale on Friday.

Time Activity Location
4:30 PM Opening Reception McCool Hall Atrium
5:30 PM Made for Main Startup Competition Fowlkes Auditorium, Colvard Student Union

Made for Main Division

This division is for entrepreneurs who are working to build a local or regional small business that is not based around introducing a specific new product or service to the marketplace.

Examples include: restaurants, boutiques, repairmen, photographers, etc.

First Prize: $2,000     2nd Prize: $1,000     3rd Prize: $500

Time Activity Location
4:30 PM Franklin NextGen Furniture & High Growth I Challenge 115 Auditorium, Franklin Furniture Center
6:00 PM High-growth Product Division II Competition 115 Auditorium, Franklin Furniture Center

Franklin NextGen Furniture & High Growth I Challenge

This division is for entrepreneurs who are working to create a new product that innovates the furniture market.

Examples: office chair that authenticates the user, recliners that connect to smart homes, etc.

First Prize: $3,000     2nd Prize: $1,500     3rd Prize: $500

High-growth Product Division II

This division is for entrepreneurs who are working to commercialize a new innovation-based product that can scale internationally. The Division I includes teams who have not built a customer-ready prototype or if participating in VentureCatalyst, would generally be before ECAB.

Examples: signal searching drone, light-up ice cube, new video game, etc.

First Prize: $3,000     2nd Prize: $1,500     3rd Prize: $500

Time Activity Location
6:00 PM E-Commerce Startup Competition Fowlkes Auditorium, Colvard Student Union

E-Commerce Division

This division is for entrepreneurs who are working on businesses that exclusively conduct internet retailing, whether they hold inventory or not.

Examples: chewy.com

First Prize: $2,000     2nd Prize: $1,000     3rd Prize: $500

Local Retailer Panel

Details Coming Soon

Time Activity Location
3:30 PM Rodger Johnson, Ret CEO of Knology, Inc. 3320 Old Main Academic Center
5:30 PM High-Growth Division III Competition Taylor Auditorium, 124 McCool Hall

Guest Talk with Rodger Johnson, Retired CEO of Knology, Inc.

Join us as retired CEO of Knology, Inc, Rodger Johnson joins to share his story of taking a company from losing $20M/yr to a $1.5B exit with the Spring 2019 Jack Hatcher Entrepreneurship Seminar. You won't want to miss this story!

High-growth Product Division III

This division is for entrepreneurs who are working to commercialize a new innovation-based product that can scale internationally. The Division II includes teams who have built a customer-ready prototype or if participating in VentureCatalyst, would generally be after ECAB.

Examples: signal searching drone, light-up ice cube, new video game, etc.

First Prize: $3,000     2nd Prize: $1,500     3rd Prize: $500

Time Activity Location
3:15 PM Closing Reception Room 329, Colvard Student Union
4:00 PM BankTEL Grand Finale Competition Fowlkes Auditorium, Colvard Student Union

Closing Reception

Meet and greet all the teams and judges participating through the week and in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the E-Center

BankTEL Grand Finale Competition

The BankTEL Grand Finale is composed of the winners of all 5 preceding competitions to name one startup to take home the grand prize!

First Prize: $6,000     2nd Prize: $2,750     3rd Prize: $1,250

COMPETITORS

From almost every college and background on campus, startup teams competed in Startup Summit 2019. Check out the strong list of competitors below!

Made for Main Division

Made for Main - 1st Place — $2,000.00

Reed's Lemonade

Founder: Willie-Lionel Reed  
Reed's Lemonade specializes in producing fresh, good tasting beverages, without the use of artificial flavors, preservatives, or powders.

Made for Main - 2nd Place — $1,000.00

Sweet Peas Wedding and Event Florist

Founder: Hannah Evans  
Sweet Peas is a high end wedding and event florist based in West Tennessee. My goal for Sweet Peas is to be the best wedding florist in the area. I offer the highest quality arrangements at a reasonable price.

Made for Main - 3rd Place (tie) — $500.00

Esteemed Juices

Founder: Rontier Whitfield  
Esteemed Juices is a natural, pressed juice company utilizing fresh fruits to curate beverages.

Made for Main - 3rd Place (tie) — $500.00

Creekside

Founder: Jake Mlsna  
Creekside is an environmental company that uses biochar and other organic products to created an all natural charcoal soap.

Made for Main - People's Choice — $250.00

Green Royale Videos

Founder: Terrence Green Jr.  
We make animated videos that attract your potential audience and engage your potential customer.

Firing Range Pizza

Founder: Carlton Cooke  
A small town pizza joint similar in design and function to Pyro's Pizza

The Cosmic Forum

Founder: Quinndolyn Harris  
We are creating an environment where students can be more social and active among their peers through gaming.

Franklin NextGen Furniture & High Growth I Challenge

High Growth I - 1st Place — $3,000.00

Bfiber Enterprise

Founder: Lalith Kumar  
Bfiber Enterprise is a banana fiber manufacture and supply Industry. Banana fiber has outgrowing demand in the Asian market, yet not reached the US market. Since the growth of banana is not restricted by season, the availability of fiber is not constrained. Plantains and bananas can be harvested from local countries and process them by cleaning and separating the strands, degumming, and drying. Later the fibers are sent to textile industries for further production of fabric and home decors.

High Growth I - 2nd Place — $1,500.00

Heels by Wilhelmina

Founder: CHINWE OKORIE  
Les pied~chic is a fashionable shoe manufacturing company for women with bigger feet. We pride ourselves in producing quality stylishly-designed footwear that fits comfortably by hugging the feet of our customers as they go about their daily routine (s). Our goal is to meet the various styles of our customers by making them feel sexy, bold, and comfortable within their own bodies, social spaces and in the marketplace as well.

High Growth I - 3rd Place — $500.00

Project Immune

Founder: Zion Woods  
My start up comes based off the many deaths around the world from snake bites. I am working on a vaccine that would increase the production or activate a gene to help us be immune to these venom that comes from snakes.

High Growth I - People's Choice — $250.00

Electrigrow

Founder: Tristan Hendrix  
Electrigrow is a competition based fitness club in which members help produce vegetables and get to have a share of the crop for themselves. Members do their part by participating in cycling classes where their muscle power is harnessed and turned into energy to facilitate growing operations. Members will be encoruaged to push themselves to the limit as their calories burned and energy produced will be tracked against their fellow members within the class. This power will be used to power lights and to maintain temperatures of both air and water.

Thrive Island

Founder: Shelby Baldwin  
Thrive Island is an online clothing brand for women that we have scaled to over $315,000 in revenue, 8,100 customers, and 100,000 social followers. We dropship clothing to women, and offer them the chance to become brand ambassadors to increase their involvement in our business and grow their personal following. From running our ambassador program, we found a need for a platform that would automate all the time-consuming tasks (generating promo codes, paying ambassadors, tracking orders, etc.), so we created one that combines all tasks into one software. We now sell this platform to other e-commerce brand-owners.

KnowVote

Founder: Ashley McLemore  
A platform that provides young voters with basic information pivotal for making informed voting decisions.

High-growth Product Division II

High Growth II - 1st Place — $3,000.00

Thrive Island

Founder: Shelby Baldwin  
Thrive Island is an online clothing brand for women that we have scaled to over $315,000 in revenue, 8,100 customers, and 100,000 social followers. We dropship clothing to women, and offer them the chance to become brand ambassadors to increase their involvement in our business and grow their personal following. From running our ambassador program, we found a need for a platform that would automate all the time-consuming tasks (generating promo codes, paying ambassadors, tracking orders, etc.), so we created one that combines all tasks into one software. We now sell this platform to other e-commerce brand-owners.

High Growth II - 2nd Place — $1,500.00

My2ndWorld

Founder: AHMED ALNAKHIF  
An interactive map-based networking platform that connects international students in the US. All users can see other students in different states and share their opportunities and experience such as scholarships and internships. Also, students may post a request that can be accepted by other students who are willing to help in any different city such as accommodation and registration process.

High Growth II - 3rd Place — $500.00

IntelliRoast

Founder: Chaise Farrar  
IntelliRoast is creating a fully-automated In-home coffee roaster with a commercial level feature-set.

High Growth II - People's Choice — $250.00

IntelliRoast

Founder: Chaise Farrar  
IntelliRoast is creating a fully-automated In-home coffee roaster with a commercial level feature-set.

Bfiber Enterprise

Founder: Lalith Kumar  
Bfiber Enterprise is a banana fiber manufacture and supply Industry. Banana fiber has outgrowing demand in the Asian market, yet not reached the US market. Since the growth of banana is not restricted by season, the availability of fiber is not constrained. Plantains and bananas can be harvested from local countries and process them by cleaning and separating the strands, degumming, and drying. Later the fibers are sent to textile industries for further production of fabric and home decors.

StrikePath

Founder: Noah Bare  
To create innovative technology that will provide live feedback and statistics at a cheap price for sports, beginning with bowling.

Beet the ICE

Founder: Madison Kate Dyer  
Our product idea is using sugar beet juice to melt on unwanted surfaces. It is an organic and cost-effective solution that is more effective than salt.

EquiTek

Founder: Courtney Fancher  
EquiTek is an equine solution-based company providing innovative ideas to equine and livestock issues. Currently, EquiTek is developing an insect repellant alternative, in which there is no physical application but rather the opening and attachment of a repellant infused object. This open and go, no mess application makes OutBound Charms your go-to for outdoor pest protection. With multiple colors and shapes to choose from, our insect protection can blend seamlessly or make a statement for you or your equine's outdoor equipment and apparel.

GamePlan

Founder: Julia Rachel Kuehnle  
Dynamic is the Waze navigation app of stadiums. It utilizes indoor mapping technology in football, basketball, and baseball stadiums to be able to provide direction to anywhere in the stadium, wait times for concessions and bathroom lines using user-generated content and location tracking, and connect friends and family around the stadium by using this more accurate indoor mapping technology.

MisoBuds

Founder: Timothy Wunrow  
We have a vision of designing earbuds to help relieve the effects of auditory disorders such as Misophonia and Central Auditory Processing Disorder, and we plan to do so by using software to identify and remove specific sounds from the audio feed of the user.

Social Cork

We are using cutting edge technology to reinvigorate the natural cork industry and deliver insights to wine producers that have never been possible before

E-Commerce Division

E-Commerce - 1st Place — $2,000.00

Lani Bryn Essentials

Founder: Courtney Rankins  
Lani Bryn Essentials is an organic & cruelty free skincare company that emphasizes the concept of "plants, not parabens." We specialize in natural facial serums, soap bars, toners, moisturizers, etc for those that may suffer from unwanted skin conditions. Lani Bryn Essentials encourages everyone to explore an alternative to mainstream skincare.

E-Commerce - 2nd Place — $1,000.00

jitterbean's coffee, llc

Founder: Madison Grant  
jitterbean's coffee creates a personalized at home coffee experience for avid coffee lovers who want to save some money. Each box represents a different gourmet beverage allowing the consumer to earn his or her barista badge. Our main goal is to show coffee lovers that good coffee does not have to come from a coffee shop!

E-Commerce - 3rd Place — $500.00

Mississippi Millennials

Founder: Madeline Burdine  
Mississippi Millennials (www.mississippimillennials.com) is currently an online platform projecting positivity around millennials (which media denotes such a negative connotation). I dream of extending the current website and social media presence into a magazine in the form of a phone app. This app would be similar to the current website (different tabs for different topics of interest, push notifications, etc).

E-Commerce - People's Choice — $250.00

jitterbean's coffee, llc

Founder: Madison Grant  
jitterbean's coffee creates a personalized at home coffee experience for avid coffee lovers who want to save some money. Each box represents a different gourmet beverage allowing the consumer to earn his or her barista badge. Our main goal is to show coffee lovers that good coffee does not have to come from a coffee shop!

Foster'd Designs

Founder: Awbrey Foster  
Foster'd Designs refines the online shopping experience, to incorporate the beautiful structure of tradition and tailoring it to the modern customer. The featured garments are tailored to the individual's body not to a statistically average scale. Partnered tailors help to assemble the final product and ensure proper fitting and delivery to the customer. The combination of traditional artisanship and innovative technology create an ideal streamlined experience of shopping. Other possible intentional results include encouraging growth in the tailor industry and positive body image for customers. This company is in the early stages of development.

Apex Apparel

Founder: Justin Truss  
Founded during a school project, Apex Apparel is an online athletic apparel store marketed as a subscription-based program where customers can either purchase individual products or get assorted material through a monthly subscription. The box will contain athletic clothing and accessories personalized for customers based on the profile they create. Rather your style is yoga, running, or just going to run errands, Apex Apparel appeals to those who live outside of the BOX.

High-Growth Division III Competition

High Growth III - 1st Place — $3,000.00

Brace Buddy

Founder: Jordan Henderson  
Brace Buddy is a portable, collapsible, and telescopic kickstand aimed at knee surgery patients so that they can elevate their leg in any setting.

High Growth III - 2nd Place — $1,500.00

Hickman Farms LLC

Founder: Neil Hickman  
Feeding bottle for baby cows

High Growth III - 3rd Place — $500.00

SmartShot LLC

Founder: Aaron Uram  
SmartShot is an Bluetooth enabled smartphone application that connects with proprietary electronic hardware in order to control most recreational skeet throwers currently on the market.

High Growth III - People's Choice — $250.00

SmartShot LLC

Founder: Aaron Uram  
SmartShot is an Bluetooth enabled smartphone application that connects with proprietary electronic hardware in order to control most recreational skeet throwers currently on the market.

Two Beans in a Pod

Founder: Aaron Uram  
Two Beans in a Pod is a beverage pod manufacturer. Our product line specializes in providing coffee, tea, and cappuccino pods that allow for two cups of beverage to be provided from one pod.

Classcape

Founder: Patrick Boudreaux  
A virtual reality game that makes education fun and immersive.

CampGem

Founder: Fei Lin  
CampGem is a one-stop platform that provide students with a virtual market place, forum communication, surrounding information that will be need for the students, especially for international students.

Aerostrip

Founder: Clayton Spaulding  
An aerodynamic device which mounts to the hood of a car/truck. As the car moves forward, the device scoops air upward, creating a barrier of air which helps reflect oncoming rain/precipitation off of windshield.

Anivation

Founder: Courtney Slattery  
Anivation is a pet-based startup that provides a durable and reliable product that is built on the principle of bettering the health, safety, and well-being of your pet. Our product is a stainless steel electronically cooling dog bowl with electronic sensors that will maintain drinkable temperatures of your pets water. By utilizing technology new to our market, our product combats extreme climate conditions for outdoor pets and alleviates the concerns and stresses of these pet owners.

BankTEL Grand Finale Competition

BankTEL Grand Finale - 1st Place — $6,000.00

Thrive Island

Founder: Shelby Baldwin  
Thrive Island is an online clothing brand for women that we have scaled to over $315,000 in revenue, 8,100 customers, and 100,000 social followers. We dropship clothing to women, and offer them the chance to become brand ambassadors to increase their involvement in our business and grow their personal following. From running our ambassador program, we found a need for a platform that would automate all the time-consuming tasks (generating promo codes, paying ambassadors, tracking orders, etc.), so we created one that combines all tasks into one software. We now sell this platform to other e-commerce brand-owners.

BankTEL Grand Finale - 2nd Place — $2,750.00

Brace Buddy

Founder: Jordan Henderson  
Brace Buddy is a portable, collapsible, and telescopic kickstand aimed at knee surgery patients so that they can elevate their leg in any setting.

BankTEL Grand Finale - 3rd Place — $1,250.00

Reed's Lemonade

Founder: Willie-Lionel Reed  
Reed's Lemonade specializes in producing fresh, good tasting beverages, without the use of artificial flavors, preservatives, or powders.

BankTEL Grand Finale - People's Choice — $250.00

Brace Buddy

Founder: Jordan Henderson  
Brace Buddy is a portable, collapsible, and telescopic kickstand aimed at knee surgery patients so that they can elevate their leg in any setting.

Bfiber Enterprise

Founder: Lalith Kumar  
Bfiber Enterprise is a banana fiber manufacture and supply Industry. Banana fiber has outgrowing demand in the Asian market, yet not reached the US market. Since the growth of banana is not restricted by season, the availability of fiber is not constrained. Plantains and bananas can be harvested from local countries and process them by cleaning and separating the strands, degumming, and drying. Later the fibers are sent to textile industries for further production of fabric and home decors.

Lani Bryn Essentials

Founder: Courtney Rankins  
Lani Bryn Essentials is an organic & cruelty free skincare company that emphasizes the concept of "plants, not parabens." We specialize in natural facial serums, soap bars, toners, moisturizers, etc for those that may suffer from unwanted skin conditions. Lani Bryn Essentials encourages everyone to explore an alternative to mainstream skincare.

Who will decide

JUDGES

Hagan Walker Photo

Hagan Walker

Founder & CEO, The Glo Group

Virginia Trinkle Photo

Virginia Trinkle

Director of Shopper Operations, Shipt

Jonathan Chilliams Photo

Jonathan Chilliams

Founder, Reale Digital

Jim Lowery Photo

Jim Lowery

Managing Director Strategy, mTrade

Lee Harris Photo

Lee Harris

GM, CFO (ret.), SGK Landscapes

Neil Mylet Photo

Neil Mylet

Farmer and Inventor, MyletX

Tony Jeff Photo

Tony Jeff

CEO, InnovateMS

John Walters Photo

John Walters

Director for NIGP, Periscope Holdings

Anna Barker Photo

Anna Barker

VP, Business Development, Glo

Paul Luckett Photo

Paul Luckett

Technology Adviser, No Sky Solutions

Wes Bowen Photo

Wes Bowen

Co-Founder / Sr. Partner, Harvest Group

Jason Henderson Photo

Jason Henderson

Co-founder, Birmingham Insurance Group

Daniel Herrington Photo

Daniel Herrington

Product Manager, Vroom

Stephen Buehler Photo

Stephen Buehler

CEO / Founder, Astra Ventures

Boyce Adams, Sr. Photo

Boyce Adams, Sr.

CEO (ret.), BankTEL Systems

Jabari Edwards Photo

Jabari Edwards

CEO, J5 SOLUTIONS

SPONSORS

BankTEL Franklin Reed Food Technology

8-12 April, 2019

Fowlkes Auditorium, Colvard Student Union,
Starkville, MS

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