The winners featuring, from left, Dylan Adcox, Andrew Bradford, Julien Bourgeois, Dr. Josie Nicholson, and Dr. David Colby.

The Oxford-Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation, in partnership with the Mississippi Small Business Development Center Network and Innovate Mississippi, recently announced the winners of the fourth annual Oxford CoBuilders Business Pitch Competition.  

The competition, held on Thursday, June 12th at the Oxford Conference Center, featured 10 entrepreneurial teams pitching to a judging panel of five regional business owners and entrepreneurial investors.  

The local competition acted as a qualifying event for this fall’s statewide CoBuilders business accelerator led by Innovate Mississippi. Companies selected for the statewide program will be identified through their participation in one of eight regional pitch competitions that have been held in Clarksdale, Starkville, Jackson, Vicksburg, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Tupelo, and now Oxford.  

Oxford’s competing teams were split up into two tracks, one for traditional and lifestyle businesses (SBDC track) and the other for innovation and technology ventures (Innovate MS track).  

Oxford’s first-place team in the Innovate MS track went to Julien Bourgeois and Andrew Bradford of Automatic AI, LLC.  Automatic AI is a smartwatch software and AI development company revolutionizing data tracking of explosive sports movements. 

Starting with tracking makes, misses, and shooting percentages of basketball players, since their launch in January 2024, Automatic AI has captured 7K monthly users and tracked 1.7 million shot attempts.  

Second place in the Innovate MS track went to Dr. David Colby of Fluoriq LLC, a healthcare technology firm who developed a first-of-its-kind and non-invasive endocannabinoid test for the fluorochemical market.  

First place in the SBDC track went to Dylan Adcox of Rebel Check, a home watch service primarily serving second-home owners in the Oxford housing market. Rebel Check is the only accredited member in Oxford of the National Home Watch Association, providing recurring home watch and inclement weather response services. 

Second place, went to Dr. Josie Nicholson of Arc Counseling & Sports Performance.  Arc Counseling offers mental performance training for athletes at the local, regional, and national levels.  

Companies participating in the competition received pre-pitch business coaching and access to development resources through partners at the Mississippi Small Business Development Center, Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Foundation, UM Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UM Office of Technology Commercialization, and Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.  

All first-place winners received a cash prize of $7,500 to put towards their business development efforts. Second-place winners took home $3,000, with all other finalists receiving $500.  

CoBuilder pitch finalists also included Zach Adamz of Komorebi Bonsai, Camille Breckenridge of The Stitchery, John Allen Walker of Hang-n-Hole, John Reyer Afamasaga of YALLWANTADS, Abhirup Chatterjee of Skill Match, and Luke Henderson of Taxi Cart LLC.  

“We are so appreciative to all our competitors, mentors, sponsors, and community attendees as this 4th annual event proved there is strong momentum for entrepreneurial development in the LOU community.  It was a wonderful celebration of the innovative spirit and collaboration is takes to grow a successful business,” said Allen Kurr, vice president of the Economic Development Foundation.  “We are looking forward to seeing all these companies grow and further supporting them through the entrepreneurial development process.”

For more information, contact Allen Kurr at 662-234-4651 or allen@oxfordms.com, or visit www.cobuilders.ms.