Entrepreneurship

The MSU Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, commonly called the E-Center, empowers students to plan, launch and grow successful local and global companies based on new ideas or MSU invented technology. Their companies are graded in the real world – by success or failure with actual, paying customers. They use applied learning to strengthen our pipeline of entrepreneurs from K-12 to college students to graduates. The E-Center has broad involvement of alumni and friends to help mentor, coach and invest in our startups. Their priority on generating a track record of exits and profitable local businesses makes MSU a national leader in this field and motivates ever-increasing investor interest in these areas. These companies contribute to a thriving young professional community, cementing Starkville as the startup hub of the Southeast and propelling their expansion throughout Mississippi.

As part of that mission of expansion, MSU has committed to staffing and supporting a team in MCITy. The mission of MCITy and the mission of the E-Center are closely aligned, so opening space in MCITy to adapt the E-Center’s proven VentureCatalyst™ program to the burgeoning tech hub was a natural decision. Since 2017, there have been over 600 startup projects that have been formed through MSU’s E-Center, with $5.5 Million in capital raised by the resulting companies.  In FY 2018-19, MSU’s start-up and spin-off companies generated $20.8 Million in added income for the Mississippi economy.