Accelerate 2025 Agenda

Tuesday, November 11

7:30 AM • Registration Opens

8:00 – 9:15 AM • Breakfast and Opening Session

Grand Ballroom A and B

Speaker: Ameka Coleman, Founder, Strands of Faith

Ameka Coleman

8:30 – 11:00 AM • ACA Investor Training: Angel Exit Strategies: Building Value from Day One

Junior Ballroom A and B (Invitation Only)

Venture capital isn’t the only way forward. Hear from Southeast leaders on the creative ways founders are raising capital, building networks, and setting the stage for big opportunities ahead.

Speaker: Elaine Bolle

Elaine Bolle

9:30 – 10:30 AM • Digital Marketing Bootcamp Part 1

Junior Ballroom C

A fast-paced training to showcase Digital Marketing and AI designed for small business owners to set measurable marketing goals and use SEO, social media, and AI tools to grow their businesses. This mini-session will help provide key strategies for understanding customers, optimizing websites, and mastering social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Speakers: Alexandria White, Shirley Tucker, Kendall Causey

Dr. Alexandria White
Shirley R. Tucker
Kendall Causey

9:30 – 10:30 AM • MS Lender Network: No Wrong Door Approach to Capital

Junior Ballroom D

Mississippi’s Lender Network is pioneering a No Wrong Door approach to capital access; connecting entrepreneurs, lenders, and technical assistance providers through one coordinated system. Whether a business owner begins with an SBDC, CDFI,TA Provider or local partner, they can be seamlessly guided toward the right funding source. Powered by the Connect MS platform, the network ensures every entrepreneur has an equitable pathway to capital, with shared data, referrals, and tools that strengthen collaboration and streamline outcomes. With representatives from banks, CDFIs, and other lending experts from across the state of Mississippi.

Speakers: Molly King, Amber Coeur, Community Bank, Hope Bank, Geneva Dummer, LaShaundra McCarty

Molly King
Amber Coeur
LaShaundra McCarty

10:45 – 11:45 AM • Digital Marketing Bootcamp Part 2

Junior Ballroom C

Continuation of Part 1: A fast-paced training to showcase Digital Marketing and AI designed for small business owners to set measurable marketing goals and use SEO, social media, and AI tools to grow their businesses. This mini-session will help provide key strategies for understanding customers, optimizing websites, and mastering social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Speakers: Alexandria White, Shirley Tucker, Kendall Causey

Dr. Alexandria White
Shirley R. Tucker
Kendall Causey

10:45 – 11:45 AM • From Idea to Impact: Mapping Mississippi’s Small Business Resources

Junior Ballroom D

Mississippi’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is rich with opportunity, and finding the right connections can make all the difference. This session brings together leaders from across the state to highlight accelerators, university partnerships, and support programs that help small businesses start strong and grow strategically. Attendees will explore and build an understanding of the statewide network of resources that can turn a good idea into lasting impact, from funding, training, mentorship, and technical assistance.

Moderator: Derek Stephens
Speakers: LaShaundra McCarty, Jarita King, Don Calcote, Chip Templeton

Derek Stephens
LaShaundra McCarty
Jarita King
Don Calcote
Chip Templeton

12:00 – 1:00 PM • Luncheon General Session

Grand Ballroom A and B

Keynote Speaker: Brad Carpenter, COO, CSpire

1:00 - 5:00 PM CoBuilders Pitch Day

Grand Ballroom C

1:00 - 5:00 PM CoBuilders Pitch Day

Grand Ballroom C

Microsoft Logo

Join us for a showcase of Mississippi startup companies from the CoBuilders in a special “Pitch Day” presentation.

Vertical Take-Off (VTO) Reading

Leta Palmiter
Ben Stassa

Founders: Leta Palmiter and Ben Stasa
Location: Vicksburg, Miss.
CoBuilders Supporting Partner: MSU Entrepreneurship Center Vicksburg
Website: www.vtoreading.com

Vertical Take-Off offers an AI-powered literacy and speech therapy platform that provides individualized decodable oral reading practice to help learners of all ages—especially those with dyslexia, other learning disabilities, or speech sound disorders—build accuracy, fluency, pronunciation, and confidence. Grounded in the science of reading, it delivers real-time, phoneme-level feedback aligned to each student’s current phonics skills, while giving teachers, therapists, and speech-language pathologists actionable data on words read, accuracy, pronunciation, days practiced, and areas of struggle. Students engage in “perfect practice” that reinforces instruction, supports lasting reading and speech success, and bridges the gap when teachers or therapists can’t work daily with every child and parents are ill-equipped to guide struggling readers or speakers. Accessible from any device, it’s designed to support—not replace—structured literacy and speech intervention. Our mission is to empower educators, families, and communities to close the literacy and communication gap, one learner at a time.

ClaimTra

Ricky Romanek

Founder: Ricky Romanek
Location: Jackson, Miss.
CoBuilders Supporting Partners: The BeanPath and Higher Purpose Hub

Claimtra is a next-generation insurance claims analytics platform designed for hospitals and clinics. We combine AI-driven insights with clear, concise data to simplify the complexity of denied and underpaid claims. Our platform goes beyond analytics by offering workflow solutions that empower teams to efficiently recover revenue. Easy to use and intuitive, Claimtra ensures providers and staff can focus less on paperwork and more on patient care. By helping hospitals and clinics recover more of what they’ve earned, we not only increase revenue but also enable better resources for improving patient outcomes.

MagnoliaEd

Fan Zhang
Sugam Panthi

Founders: Fan Zhang and Sugam Panthi
Location: Hattiesburg, Miss.
CoBuilders Supporting Partner: Mississippi Polymer Institute
Website: www.magnoliaed.ai

MagnoliaEd provides a suite of AI tools, including a 24/7 AI tutor bot, advanced analytics, and personalized learning solutions. We work directly with educators to gather course-specific materials, process that information, and train our AI to respond in ways that reflect each class’s unique content and expectations. Our AI tutor delivers instant, tailored support to students anytime they need it, helping them overcome challenges quickly and effectively. This reduces repetitive questions for educators, allowing them to focus on deeper, more impactful teaching, while also giving them summaries of frequently asked questions to better understand student needs. We maintain a secure, compliant platform that upholds academic integrity, adheres to regulations, and drives improved learning outcomes.

Altude

Andrew Mocol
Sunny Singh

Founders: Andrew Mocol and Sunny Singh
Location: Biloxi, Miss.
CoBuilders Supporting Partner: Gulf Coast Business Council
Website: altude.so

Altude is the next generation of Web3 infrastructure, built to make blockchain accessible for everyone. Our platform helps businesses unlock the power of blockchain in their apps without fees, friction, or the burden of managing crypto. We remove the complexity of gas fees and wallets while still preserving full control and security for users. With a seamless, click-of-a-button experience, Altude makes it possible for any business to deliver blockchain-powered features without overwhelming their customers. By focusing on simplicity and performance, we’re helping accelerate adoption and bringing the next wave of users to Web3.

SimpleScript

Alex Bucklew
Jonathan McAdory
Allen Mixon
Thomas Black

Founders: Alex Bucklew, Johnathan McAdory, Allen Mixon, Thomas Black
Location: Louisville, Miss.
CoBuilders Supporting Partner: MSU Entrepreneurship Center Vicksburg

As prescription costs continue to rise, SimpleScript seeks to make prescription medications more affordable to everyone with their patent pending drug discount card aggregator. Any customer can use SimpleScript’s free online platform to find the cheapest digital discount cards for the most accessible locations in their area.

3:29 PM • Networking Break

Study Placer

Brandon Cooper

Founder: Brandon Cooper
Location: Starkville, Miss.
CoBuilders Supporting Partner: MSU Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach
Website: studyplacer.com

Study Placer is a mobile app that imports assignments from LMS platforms like Canvas and automatically splits and schedules them into a prioritized plan. It removes the need for manual entry or task planning by using a combination of user-provided data and assignment data, combined with heuristic-based machine learning and LLM integration.  I’m starting with students due to their high need and data accessibility, but the underlying framework can support business, professional, and personal workloads.  The assignment scheduling logic uses a combination of algorithmic rules, heuristic-based ML, and LLMs to adapt to user behavior and preferences. Natural language processing will allow students to manage tasks using natural phrases like “Move my biology homework to Tuesday.”  The market is primed for Study Placer, student overload and calendar fatigue are growing, and on-device ML models combined with LLMs have matured to the point where personalized scheduling can be done flexibly.

Automatic AI

Julien Bourgeois

Founder: Julien Bourgeois
Location: Oxford, Miss.
CoBuilders Supporting Partner: Oxford/Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation
Website: www.automatictrainer.com

Automatic is the world’s first AI-driven sports tech on smart watches. Unless they are on an elite team, athletes often lack access to high-end training. Our first product leverages advanced AI on Apple Watches (most widely adopted wearable) to track basketball workouts. 50K installs, 2M shots taken, and post-revenue, Automatic delivers real-time basketball analytics as effortlessly as Apple tracks daily steps. Launched in May 2025, our B2B application addresses vast needs for college programs, allowing coaches to monitor players’ workloads outside of team activities. Expanding further, our trade-secret algorithms can apply to other markets like golf, pickleball, and even physical therapy.

5:00 - 6:30 PM • Speaker & Sponsor Reception

6:30pm - 8:00pm • After Hours on the Rooftop Bar

Wednesday, November 12

7:30 AM • Registration Opens

8:00 – 9:15 AM • 2026 Legislative Update

Grand Ballroom A and B

Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann

9:15 – 9:30 AM • Coffee and Contacts Break

Innovation Alley

9:30 – 10:30 AM • No VC? No Problem. Navigating Alternative Funding Pathways

Junior Ballroom C

Venture capital isn’t the only way forward. Hear from Southeast leaders on the creative ways founders are raising capital, building networks, and setting the stage for big opportunities ahead.

Moderator: Nick Pashos

Panelists:
Allyson Eman – Venture Atlanta
Jon Atkinson – Idea Village / NOEW
Emily Wykle – Gener8tor 

Nick Pashos
Allyson Eman
Jon Atkinson
Emily Wykle

9:30 – 10:30 AM • Create & Launch a Real App in 60 minutes

Junior Ballroom D

This practical session helps founders move from idea to action. Using a range of no-code and low-code tools, participants will learn how to design and launch a simple, working app during the session—no programming required. The workshop also covers how to plan the app’s structure, keep the first build focused on core functionality, and prepare for future improvements. Attendees will leave with a live app they built themselves and a clear understanding of how to continue developing and testing it after the event.

David Collins

10:30 –10:45 AM • Coffee and Contacts Break

Innovation Alley

10:45 – 11:45 AM • Rise of the Humans: Industry Leaders Leveraging AI

Junior Ballroom C

The rise in AI use has been explosive.  But it is unresolved.  Many people are heading in the wrong direction for the wrong reasons. Hear from a panel of expert implementers heading in the right direction. Where do humans fit in the mediocrity equation? Are creation and consumption the same thing? Is using AI without an expert malpractice? Putting AI in the right hands is unbelievably powerful–we’ll introduce you to people who are doing it. Some results may surprise you.

Moderator: Bryan Carter – CEO, Think Creative Intelligence

Panelists:
Cameron Day – Author of “Chaios”, “Madmen”, and the “Advertising Survival Guide Trilogy”, and recovering Creative Director for multiple ad agencies
Dr. Saurabh Chandra – Chief Telehealth Officer, University of Mississippi Medical Center
Julien Bourgeouis – Founder, AI Automatic

Bryan Carter
Cameron Day
Saurabh Chandra
Julien Bourgeouis

10:45 – 11:45 AM InvestMS Scale-Up Pitch Competition, Powered by Regions Foundation

Junior Ballroom D

10:45 – 11:45 AM InvestMS Scale-Up Pitch Competition, Powered by Regions Foundation

Junior Ballroom D

Later-stage founders with real traction take the stage to compete for a grand prize of $15,000.
 
Moderator: Lindsey Benefield, Investment Director

Lindsey Benefield

12:00 – 1:30 PM Lunch Keynote

Grand Ballroom A and B

Luncheon Fireside Chat –  Jewel Burks Solomon

From Founder to Fund Manager — Building Inclusive Innovation Ecosystems

Moderator: Ryan Miller, CEO, Oxford-Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation

Jewel Burke Solomon

1:30 – 3:00 PM SBIR/STTR Innovation Track

Grand Ballroom C

 Immediately following the Accelerate Conference Luncheon

This session will provide an overview of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, including eligibility requirements and key elements of the application process. Participants will also have the opportunity to engage in an open “Ask Me Anything” discussion with SBIR/STTR experts to gain practical insights on pursuing federal funding for research and technology commercialization.

Speakers: Tasha Bibb, Joe Graben, and Arsalan Daudi

Tasha Bibb
Joe Graben