Vince Jordan believes his company, Lobaki Inc., may be one of the first companies ever formed, literally, in virtual reality. Jordan was physically in Boulder, Colo., and his son, Josiah, was in New Zealand. Wearing headsets and holding controllers, they met on a virtual beach in cyberspace, where they signed…
MetaGames, founded by MSU graduate Ryan Gilbrech, is building a video game company aimed at the lucrative competitive gaming market, with funding from the Mississippi Seed Fund. Not long after graduating from Mississippi State University and entering the workforce with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering, Ryan Gilbrech was lamenting to…
MegaPatch LLC, a Madison, Miss., company that is producing “the world’s most durable cold patch for pothole repair,” is the brainchild of Jack Wilson, who has held the patent on his Megapatch pothole repair solution for over 20 years. Potholes are the bane of every driver—and every civic transportation administrator.…
Earl Washington's daily 4 a.m. walks were the inspiration he needed to invest the StayCool Cap, a device he hopes can fight back the Mississippi summer heat. "You know how when you're walking, and start sweating and pull your hat off, and a breeze hits you?" asks the Jackson resident.…
Two great friends of Innovate Mississippi, Dr. Nashlie Sephus and Dr. Julie Cwikla, were honored at the 4th Annual Ada Lovelace Awards. The Ada award was created to celebrate women from around the Southeastern U.S. for their achievements in technology fields. The award ceremony took place in New Orleans at…
Conor Ferguson had a slight leg-up on the competition as he graduated from Mississippi State University—he’d already started a wireless Internet company with his dad when he was still in high school. That company offered high-speed access to residential areas where other types of broadband didn't reach. How it works…
Bac Yeast is a Hattiesburg-based company delivering specialized yeast to breweries around the country. A chemist, a microbiologist, and an engineer walk into a bar. A couple of beers later, and they have a business plan: to start their own beer lab. Ok, the idea wasn’t technically born in a…
(Jackson, Miss.) The Mississippi Coding Academies are proud to announce the graduation of its first cohort of computer programmer developers. The Jackson cohort graduated 11 junior developers, and the Golden Triangle cohort graduated nine new junior developers after they successfully completed an 11-month, full stack curriculum which started in October…
'The Accelerator' got some great press from the Hattiesburg American, which published an article of Thanksgiving weekend by Ellen Ciurczak. The article focused on the $28-million, 60,000-square-foot facility that is home to 14 different companies and three University of Southern Mississippi labs. The Accelerator is a project of USM, designed to…
The thought of competing in the 2017 Mississippi New Venture Challenge pitch competition created more fear in Kristen Allen than just about anything she had ever experienced. As an artist, advocate for the homeless, and stay-at-home mom of two she was comfortable in her own skin. But a pitch-woman for an…