New CEO Downtown demonstrates āperfectā town and gown partnership
Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.āĻć½¶Ö±²„ student entrepreneurs are thriving in downtown Starkville, and university and city leaders are identifying new and expanded opportunities to support business startups as they grow into mature companies.
MSUās Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, known as the CEO, and the Greater Starkville Development Partnership hosted an open house today [Nov. 17] to showcase space the GSDP has designated for business use by the university center.
āThis is a very unique town and gown situation, and we have full support from the mayor and [Ļć½¶Ö±²„President] Dr. Keenum,ā said Jeffrey Rupp, Ļć½¶Ö±²„outreach director for the College of Business.
Mayor Lynn Spruill called the collaboration the āperfectā town and gown partnership.
āMy hope is that we will have an explosion of this type of business activity. Entrepreneurs become tenants who become long-term tenants and residents of the community and a major part of the fabric of our overall town,ā Spruill said.
Scott Maynard, GSDP president and CEO, said that as entrepreneurs have utilized the downtown area, leaders have identified the need for more space.
āAt the beginning of the year, weāll open four additional office suites to be used as incubator space for new businesses,ā said Maynard, who was named to his position this year after a long career as director of MSUās Career Center.
Rahul Gopal is among the young entrepreneurs taking interest. An Ļć½¶Ö±²„aerospace engineering and MBA graduate, Gopal founded CampusKnot Inc. along with Ļć½¶Ö±²„business graduate Hiten Patel while they were students. Gopal now works full time as CEO and expressed strong interest in moving the company to the GSDP space, where fellow Ļć½¶Ö±²„alumnus Hagan Walker has operated his company Vibe for nearly a year, along with his partner Anna Barker, an Ļć½¶Ö±²„international business and Spanish major.
āOur sales have grown 600 percent year over year from 2016-2017,ā said the 2015 electrical engineering graduate, in discussing his product Glo, which safely lights and flavors beverages.
āHaving this space lends legitimacy,ā he explained. āYou need to get people to a place where they are serving the community. Itās nice to have space where people can stop by and we can host meetings.ā
Ļć½¶Ö±²„students are launching about 80 new businesses a year. A new state-of-the-art CEO space on campus features 12,000 square feet of innovative design including glass āidea wallsā in McCool Hall, home to the universityās College of Business.
More than $6 million in endowments and private gifts help spur success, and faculty advisers from across disciplines coach students on everything from technology issues to finances. An executive-in-residence program makes senior business leaders throughout the region accessible to budding entrepreneurs seeking advice and encouragement.
Learn more about how Ļć½¶Ö±²„supports student entrepreneurship at . The Greater Starkville Development Partnership is online at .
Ļć½¶Ö±²„is Mississippiās leading university, available online at .