Since 2009, Tiny Techz has been connecting youth to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education opportunities through K-8 curriculum, after-school programs, special camps and even birthday parties. Based in Columbia, South Carolina (two hours from one of the most important STEM universities for women, according to Forbes), it was founded out of a need for STEM, especially in the rural, impoverished communities around the state that lacked resources, opportunities or even perspective to encourage youth in these technical fields. In the past seven years, the company has grown from serving one rural school system in South Carolina to serving thousands of STEAM (STEM plus the arts) scholars from Kindergarten through 8th grade all across South Carolina and North Carolina. We talked to Chris Williams, the company’s cofounder, to find out more about this interesting venture.

Q: What can you tell us about the areas that Tiny Techz serves and why the work you’re doing in them is so important?

A: The areas are less fortunate. Technology is very limited and resources are not as adequate. So STEM provides an avenue for those youth to see their way out of a broken cycle. Mainly their opportunities would rely on plant jobs not careers. STEM opens up so many doors if you understand it. This provides them the opportunity to join the playing field. Our demographics in the beginning were primarily minorities and our focus is still in that area, but we offer programming to anyone in that age or grade demographic. Minorities are not a large capacity in STEM fields. We want scholars to know they can be a part of a career, not just a job.  STEM is one of the only career fields that allows for a scholar to have a two-year degree or high school diploma and still have sustainability. It allows for scholars to increase their thinking skills, but at the same time engages them in learning.

Q: Why South Carolina? Did you grow up there?

A: I’m not originally from South Carolina. I attended the University of South Carolina. But in business you identify a niche and you start a platform around it. When we first started, we did what most startups do, cold call. Marion County, a rural area, was the first place to provide us a break. Since then, we’ve expanded to inner city areas, too.

Q: It’s no secret that minorities are under-represented in STEM fields. Is that a deterrent to someone like you or a student who might be interested in the field but who looks around and doesn’t see many familiar faces?

A: No, it is a motivation to continue to push harder and do what I’m passion about. Opportunities will always be there, it is about informing scholars about those opportunities. The main issue is knowing that we have a platform and how to use that platform to reach scholars who some may say could not be a video game developer, a graphic designer or engineer for a major corporation. We have to provide scholars the opportunity to think outside the box and not conform to the typical career pathways.

When you are trying to level the playing field, often STEM is not one of the first topics in most communities. If you look at industry trends, education is changing, careers are changing, but we are introducing it all too late. STEM has been around for years, but not a focus. Today if you visit an underserved area or school, you will not find STEM as a common denominator and therefore scholars are not being introduced to specialized areas like crash and safety engineering, ballistics engineering, video game development, 3-D printer repair.

Q: We know of lots of cool programs for kids, such as Maker Faire, and FIRST and VEX robotics competitions. Do you get involved with those ever? 

A: Yes, we participate in those. We offer a program called STEM Mania similar to Maker Faire, and we have robotics programming, as well, but our only concern with that is most people stop there. They do not show the true STEM behind robotics and how to solve problems. They focus on just the coding aspects of it. Our focus is showing how robotics solves problems..

Q: What have been some of your biggest growing pains over the years?

A: Introducing a product to areas that are not familiar with true STEM and educating them on the meaning. And funding is always tricky. In 2009, we were a startup with no seed money or investment capital. We are a for-profit company so that means either we take on investors or acquire debt. We have been just working at the business to continue on the cutting edge and niche services.

Q: Where do you see Tiny Techz in five years?

A: We’re working to become a household brand in South Carolina. Helping grades K-8 educators understand the importance of integrating STEM into their classroom as well as outside the academic four walls. We are in the process of launching new programs, such as an after-school academy for minority girls. Our continued focus will be South Carolina and creating a major footprint in that area with the intentions of developing a stronger brand and company.

The post #MyStartupStory: Tiny Techz Provides STEM Exposure to Underserved in South Carolina appeared first on Startup Southerner.

There is no doubt that the Southern food culture has been in the spotlight in the recent years. In addition to the reinvention of the cuisine, there is a growing interest in discovering and preserving family recipes. With more Southerners wanting to explore bringing their grandmother’s peach jam on the market, where do these foodpreneurs go to get guidance on the basic steps to get it on a store shelf legally and safely?

In South Carolina, The Food2Market Program  can help guide you.

Offered through the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service, the Food2Market program launched three years ago by Kimberly Baker, a food safety agent, to guide food entrepreneurs in the appropriate steps needed to begin the production of a food product. Adair Hoover, a food safety agent who joined the program in 2014, says the guidance often involves correspondence, via email or conversation, with hundreds of entrepreneurs a year on food safety and regulation requirements needed to get their products to market. Its location in Columbia, South Carolina, can provide various product testing required for some commercial products.

A two-day workshop for new food-based entrepreneurs is also a program they try to offer each year. For about $200, a “tremendous amount” of food safety and regulation information is covered, while having the opportunity to talk in-person to Clemson University Food Science professors, and regulators from South Carolina Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Environmental Control. Of course, getting to taste the food is part of the workshop. “An especially fun part of the workshop is an afternoon networking event where we offer cocktails and appetizers, and the entrepreneurs are encouraged to share their food products with the group,” says Hoover.

The Food2Market program is trying to keep up with an ever-increasing demand, but Hoover really sees the program’s services as one way of preserving the Southern food heritage. “By assisting South Carolina food-based businesses, we are helping to spread our uncommonly good SC foods!,” Hoover says.

The post Clemson’s Food2Market Helps the Southern Food Entrepreneur appeared first on Startup Southerner.

Pat Rogers, a fifth-generation peanut farmer from Blenheim, South Carolina, was at an InfoAg conference in 2014 when he identified a problem within the farming community. He realized that the world of agriculture was in desperate need of a way for farmers to connect and share information in a faster, more convenient way.

Rogers had seen firsthand how scarce networking opportunities were for agriculture professionals. Even social media platforms and online message boards failed to provide steady, relevant information to farmers in their own regions. So he came up with the idea for a peer-to-peer network where farmers could both communicate and access local information on a single platform. He called that platform AgFuse.

AgFuse would allow farmers to connect with one another, share farming tips, pitch product ideas and keep in touch with other agriculture professionals in their area.

“I knew I had a good idea, but I had to verify it,” Rogers says. In August of 2015, he set up a landing page that featured a signup box and a description of the site’s functionality. AgFuse received so much interest that, just a month later, the full site was released to the public. Since then, it has welcomed users from over 28 countries, including Australia, Mexico and Canada.

The platform works lot like Facebook, but with a networking component similar to LinkedIn’s. Farmers are able to connect with one another and receive information based on geographical location, crops, and news interests. Users can also join groups, create posts and scroll through their news feeds to see what’s happening with other farmers in their network. But AgFuse omits some of the unnecessary features of traditional social media to make room for more business.

“It’s more like an information network instead of a social network,” Rogers explains.

AgFuse is the first social media platform of its kind, which means it has a lot of potential for development. Rogers hopes to have the iOS app up for testing and feedback within the month, with the Android app soon to follow. Other upcoming features include a platform through which agri-bloggers and other writers can post their work straight to the website, and a reference service that will make pertinent information accessible to farmers from anywhere, especially the field.

But AgFuse is currently a bootstrapped venture, so Rogers is taking things slow. When asked if he plans to seek investors anytime soon, he responds by saying, “We plan to take bootstrapping as far as we can. I have a vision for the product. I’m kind of a target user, so I’m doing it a little for myself.” Rogers says he wants to ensure the product has integrity and will properly serve farmers like himself before seeking more funding.

The post AgFuse Cultivates Information Networks for Farmers appeared first on Startup Southerner.

This post was made possible by a sponsorship from Sifted, a Nashville-based startup.

In an effort to make up for not being able to provide expensive benefits like health insurance and retirement plans, startups look for both tangible and intangible ways to entice workers to join their teams. Perks like super flexible work arrangements, pet friendly workspaces, Nerf gun wars and beer on Fridays sound great, but do they work?

To answer that questions, we turned to Courtney Newman, the director of human resources and talent acquisition at SPARC, a Charleston, South Carolina-based small business that rapidly exited its startup phase thanks in part to an impressive company culture that offers a bevy of, you guessed it, lifestyle perks. The software development company, which was founded in 2009, now boasts 260 team members and was acquired by Booz Allen Hamilton last year. Here’s what Newman had to say about lifestyle perks and their role in helping startups find and retain top talent.

Startup Southerner: What are some of the lifestyle benefits offered to SPARC employees? Which of these are most popular and seem to get the biggest positive response?

Newman: We focus on putting people first, first. We have created a flexible workstyle so our team can really achieve that work/life balance. All team members are completely mobile, so they can work from anywhere at any time. We offer core office hours, and team members are empowered to work from home as needed. Beer, dogs in the office and games are all fun and a part of who we are, but what our team appreciates the most is the trust and value we place in our team members.

Startup Southerner: As the director of talent acquisition at SPARC, you must have a good read on how these lifestyle benefits appeal to potential hires. How would you describe the general reaction?

Newman: Today’s talent market is highly competitive and the typical SPARC hire is not going to be wooed by Nerf guns and a cold beer alone. The things that I’ve found to always be the most sought-after benefits are the intangibles: a truly trusting environment offering the ability to work in your own way, the opportunity to work with an extremely intelligent team, a company that invests in its people, inspiring leaders and a culture of open communication. The rest is gravy and, don’t get me wrong, we offer plenty of it: no dress code (jeans and flip flops are the norm), onsite gym, daily happy hours, dogs in office each Friday, and free snacks, sodas, and coffee for team members.

There are plenty of successful companies that don’t offer those types of perks, but our perks play a central role in our culture. However, the perks that recruit people are often different than the perks that retain people though. We may have piqued someone’s interest with Beer30, Dog Fridays and a generous vacation time but what will keep our team members is always the flexible scheduling and flexible office arrangements, the people that they work with and build relationships with, and the opportunity to work on exciting projects.

Startup Southerner: The cliché is that all startups have foosball tables. Obviously, that’s not true, but what would your advice be to a startup that is looking to add lifestyle perks to its workplace environment? How do you decide what to start with? Do you choose lifestyle perks before you even have your first employee, or does it become clear as you hire what perks would be best for your particular company culture?

Newman: Workplace culture evolves over time. Let it be semi-organic. Don’t force culture on people. Most of our best ideas come from our team members who are then empowered to make them a reality. The most important thing is that the leadership supports an active and growing culture and provide the resource to do so. Incorporate things you and your team are passionate about.

The post How Important Are Lifestyle Perks? appeared first on Startup Southerner.