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April 20, 2021 | Tom Ballard

Mixtroz Co-Founder shares why the Black-led start-up found a home in Birmingham

The mother and daughter team behind Mixtroz relocated the company from Middle Tennessee to Birmingham as we have previously noted in teknovation.biz posts. That decision followed the start-up becoming a part of Innovation Depot’s “Velocity Accelerator,” winning the Birmingham stop of Steve Case’s “Rise of the Rest” tour several years ago, and closing a $1 million round of funding.

Why are we calling a Birmingham start-up to your attention? Two reasons. First, as noted in the introduction to this post, Ashlee Ammons and her Co-Founder and mother (Kerry Schrader) are only the 37th and 38th Black females to ever close such a round.” Second, Ammons shares why she has remained in Birmingham.

“Birmingham gave us a chance and believed we could do this; I always tell people, part of your job as an entrepreneur is to find where your people are – and Birmingham is where our people are,” Ammons says.

That is an important point to understand for a community trying to support Black founders through initiatives like “100Knoxville.”



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