Meet our MENTEES
These entrepreneurs are accelerating their businesses by participating in The Spring Venture Mentoring Service
MEET OUR MENTEES
These companies are paired with 3-5 highly experienced mentors to receive a variety of skilled expertise and advice to help grow their businesses, build revenue and create jobs in the greater Pensacola area.
Ash & Air LLC
https://www.ashandairlounge.com/
Ash and Air is Pensacola's first mobile cigar lounge. Unlike other pop-up cigar bars that display cigars on a folded table, Ash and Air utilizes the truck bed of a 1988 Japanese Mini truck to showcase our craft cigars. We also provide an immersive experience to all of our guests, featuring an outdoor lounge area, unique amenities, and a Certified Cigar Sommelier Tobacconist to guide you through choosing, cutting, and lighting your cigar.
Elevate Waste Solutions
Elevate Waste Solutions is a “hands on” waste reduction firm focusing on the Gulf Coast of Florida. With over 18 years of commercial trash and recycling experience, EWS’s owner has made it a goal to not only change the way businesses manage their waste but make the communities and areas we live in environmentally friendly and clean. Many business owners needlessly suffer with messy, expensive, and frustrating trash service and do not know there is a quick and inexpensive solution. At EWS, we manage these headaches for our clients so they can focus more time on their actual business and best of all our services reduce current costs by about 20%. There are no up-front fees, so call us today to set up your free trash and recycling service analysis.
Bear Fruit
https://bearfruitbowls.square.site/
Bear Fruit is a beach retreat for a fresh, healthy acai bowl and organic locally roasted coffee. From our decor to our staff we aim to make you feel relaxed and comfortable in our hangout on the pier. Or step out back and enjoy our treats on the beach!
Extreme Tactical, Inc.
Extreme Tactical, Inc. (ETI) is a full service durable goods, weapons and explosives supplier providing a wide spectrum of resources for Government Agencies offering expertise in Duty Gear, Tactical, Safety, Small Arms, Ammunition, Military Armored Vehicles, Tanks and Tank Components, and Educational Support Services. ETI is headquartered in Crestview, FL with the capability to reach customers worldwide. Since 2007 they’ve been supplying the U.S. Military, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Federal and State Law Enforcement agencies with training, weapons, training aids and tactical equipment in Florida and throughout the United States.
ETI’s strength/mission is to provide the best equipment and training to military and law enforcement officials in order to secure our homeland. ETI has instructors who are military veterans, law enforcement and licensed Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) who teach classes from basic to advanced firearms, pre-deployment training, foreign weapons training, role play services, pyrotechnics, homemade explosives (HME) training, Explosive ordnance Disposal (EOD) training and combat medical training.
Cycle Joint
Cycle Joint is an Electric Bike Shop located in historic downtown Pensacola. We sell, rent, service, and offer guided tours on Electric Bicycles. Additionally, we sell electric skateboards, Onewheels, Bote Paddle Boards, and outfitter gear.
Graye's Granite Inc
Graye's Granite Inc. is a talented countertop fabrication and installation company with experience of over 20 years, located in Ellyson Industrial Park. We specialize in Granite, Marble, Quartzite, Quartz and Exotic slabs. We also specialize in countertop repairs as well. We take great pride in servicing our community whether it be countertop projects, referrals, and/or design direction.
Determinant Materials
https://determinantmaterials.com/
At Determinant Materials, we are tackling the growing global crisis of electronic waste.
Used electronics are the fastest growing waste stream in the world, but more than 75% of electronics are landfilled.
We cut the processing time and energy usage to recycle electronics by 90% while doubling the recycled materials value.
The electronics recycling market is $55 Billion, growing 12% annually.
Greek's Catering and Events
https://greekscateringevents.com/
Greek’s Catering and Events strives to be your go-to spot for any occasion that calls for delicious food. Our family has always associated food with family, community, and love. Locally owned and operated, this husband and wife team strive to deliver that experience to every customer who visits one of our locations. Whether frequenting one of our food trucks, booking our catering services for your next special event or corporate luncheon, grabbing one of our delicious kabobs at a local sporting event, or enjoying an authentic lamb gyro with us at a community festival - we are ready to serve you with a smile!
Joe Hobbs Glass Art
Joe Hobbs Glass Art creates fine art glass with a focus on custom lighting and unique glass art with a coastal influence.
We create custom high quality glass art and sell pieces in our gallery, online and in other galleries across the country. We create custom residential and commercial lighting specific to my customers needs and requirements. We make fine art glass formed by the coast.
InHer Physique Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy and Wellness
InHer Physique Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy & Wellness offers on-on-one, private pelvic floor rehabilitation sessions to women, men, children, and transgender individuals who suffer from pelvic dysfunctions. From urinary incontinence to pelvic pain, we treat conditions that are specific to the pelvis and gastrointestinal regions. We also offer pregnancy and postpartum wellness consultations to help navigate pregnancy, prepare for birth, and recover postpartum. Our dedicated team of professionals are specialists who are highly trained to help those who suffer in silence. One of the first of its kind, InHer Physique is here for our community and abroad.
Mrs. Jones Cold Brew
Mrs. Jones Cold Brew makes easy coffee for busy people. Locally owned and operated, this small-batch coffee brewery bottles a coffee ELIXIR concentrate so that consumers can create fancy coffee-shop beverages at home in minutes. Every bottle of ELIXIR is hand-made with locally roasted coffee and does not contain dairy, sweetener, or preservatives. Mrs. Jones encourages her fan-friends to “Be Your Own Barista”, creatively adding their own milk and syrups to customize their cold brew.
Mrs. Jones began in late 2016 as a side-hustle for Stephanie Jones, a mom on a mission to share the benefits of cold brew coffee concentrate with other sleep-deprived parents. Now a well-known local brand, Mrs. Jones distributes her magical bottles at farmers’ markets and local establishments including Ever’man Co-op Grocery, Apple Market, Alyssa’s, Casino Beach Bar, Daily Squeeze, and Craft Bakery.
Nail Company Wholesale Supply, Inc.
Nail Company Wholesale Supply, Inc. was established in 2016 to help salon owners and technicians save valuable time and effort by providing a great selection of nail supplies locally and shipped via their website at competitive prices. They conveniently offer a wide range of nail supplies, equipment, chemicals and sanitation products so that nail businesses and technicians do not have to travel during off days and/or holidays to purchase supplies.
The artistry of nails is an exciting and fun business venture for which anyone can develop a passion. Through social media, the world has become a more connected society. Why should customers have to wait to catch up to the latest and greatest? Nail Company Wholes Supply strives to stay current on the latest product development trends and techniques and provide continuing education through training and demo days by the hottest manufactures in the market. At Nail Company Wholesale Supply, “Our Passion is your Success!”
National Energy USA
https://nationalenergyusa.com/
National Energy USA is a minority-owner/veteran-owned ClimateTech company headquartered in Pensacola, Florida. The company offers advanced recycling solutions using proprietary robotic sorting equipment to extract valuable commodities from everyday garbage. Under its “recycling-as-a-service” business model, National Energy partners with municipalities, military installations, and theme parks to address the growing garbage crisis, while reducing operational costs and greenhouse gas emissions. National Energy is led by the U.S. Air Force’s former “Chief Garbologist” and its technology has been vetted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. In 2021, National Energy was awarded its first contract with the U.S. Air Force.
The Native Café
The Native Cafe is locally owned and operated by the Brown family, longtime Pensacola locals whose ancestry goes back to a time when the Pensacola area played a pivotal role in the development of our region and culture. Inspired by Pensacola’s uniquely blended culture and cuisine, we saw an opportunity to share a taste of the Gulf Coast with tourists and locals (a.k.a. “Natives”). Native Cafe opened it’s doors for business in 2008 and has been serving up delicious breakfast and lunch ever since.
Known by Pensacola natives and “visiting natives” alike as the place to go for delicious, fresh, healthy, homemade food on Pensacola Beach, word about our tasty fresh food, friendly staff and eclectic atmosphere spread to both local and distant communities. We’re honored every time we hear from a visiting native that they ate the majority of their meals while on vacation with us - it happens a lot - and there’s no greater compliment than to be someone’s homestyle kitchen while they’re away from home. And we love our local natives who make our little slice of paradise the place to go to hang with locals and eat a good meal. Native Cafe strives to grow hand in hand with our community and celebrate all the people and flavors unique to our area for decades to come. Go Native!
Rainey’s Closet
Rainey’s Closet offers designer clothing rentals for children and moms-to-be through an online store. Moms and photographers throughout the United States rent high-end special occasion clothing and coordinating accessories for a fraction of the cost to buy. Whether it’s a photo session, wedding, or other special event, their mission is to help save time, money, and the planet by providing everything in one place to celebrate and capture memorable moments.
SCI Health Metrics
SCI Health Metrics produces Software-As-A-System (SaaS)-based platforms for treating patient distress in healthcare institutions that result in better patient health outcomes and significant cost savings for healthcare providers. Clinically, SCI platforms offer providers the opportunity to assess and treat patient distress as complementary to physical medical care treatment. SCI is a 5-year-old Florida-based company with 16 employees and with a product that consistently demonstrates a 67% reduction in patient distress level, a 15.5% increase in patient experience scores (HCAHPS) and produces estimated cost savings for the average U.S. hospital of $9.3M per year in reduced patient length of stay costs. SCI currently has contracts in place with nine hospital systems nationwide, including trial use with the nation’s largest public health care system. SCI’s clinical and financial mission is to implement its platforms in hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, urgent care, and retail care centers, and physician clinics nationwide and worldwide, and to saturate the worldwide market with SCI’s platform.
Snap Soccer
Snap Soccer believes that growing the game of youth soccer leads to better, stronger connections between all people and every community. Founded in 2010, their mission is to put players, parents, soccer clubs, and businesses on the same playing field and watch them grow.
What started as one couple running a 100-team tournament has evolved into a trusted partner to 100’s of soccer clubs, local municipalities, and small to medium sized businesses. Snap Soccer takes these organizations and transforms their brand. They leverage modern marketing techniques to engage with their audience, as well as produce extremely organized, large-scale sporting events.
When you combine these services, Snap Soccer keeps participants happy, saves organizers from headaches, gives soccer clubs more time to focus on training, and helps local businesses find new customers.
The Stackhouse
The Stackhouse is a print shop specializing in ultra, high-quality art and photography reproduction. We are a full-service reproduction studio that can help scan, print, and ship traditional print products (paper and canvas) for artists and photographers. In addition, we hope to focus more on drop shipping and order fulfillment with the goal of eventually creating a headless ordering system that can be used across multiple platforms.
Stallworth Insurance Services
Stallworth Insurance Services was established May 2018 The owner Tameka Stallworth has over 18+ in the insurance industry.
Stallworth Insurance Services is your neighborhood independent insurance agent. We specialize in personal service - from auto, life, renters, home, commercial to business insurance. Our dedicated insurance agents are here to help you get the right coverage
Something Old Salvage
Something Old Salvage (S.O.S.) offers full service junk removal to commercial and residential clients. Their goal is to become the "Chick-Fil-A" of junk removal by quickly, safely, and efficiently removing the things invading the client's space without sacrificing customer service. They treat everyone with dignity and their items with respect.
They properly and legally dispose of items not salvageable or recyclable. Conversely, S.O.S donates reusable items to local nonprofits and recycles whenever possible. Their team volunteers for organizations in Pensacola and the surrounding areas where they contribute resources to help our neighbors. Although the business model is simple, they have a profound effect on our clients' lives.
Owners Anthony and Sabrina Simpson strive to continue to grow within the local area and expand operations to include ancillary services and other markets in need of professional junk removal experience. As always, they remind everyone, Stressed with Mess? Call S.O.S.
Tap the Coast
Tap the Coast is a mobile beverage and experiential bar service that adds a unique, upscale feel to private events. It was started in 2019 by Dannon and Christopher Hooks, a husband and wife team who are both proud Pensacola natives. While planning their wedding, Dannon discovered the mobile beverage industry and the growing number of mobile bars across the country. There was nothing like it in the area and the couple saw it as an opportunity to bring a new and exciting concept to the local scene.
Drawing on their own professional experience and backgrounds in event planning and business management, Chris and Dannon set out to make their dream a reality. They found the perfect vintage camper to renovate and tackled the project together, completing the build and launching their business in just five months. Since that time they've added other rental options to the fleet and have plans to grow even further in 2020, providing a variety of bar styles to meet the needs of events large and small, from barns to the beach. Tap the Coast's mission is to create memorable experiences for life’s unforgettable moments.
TASTEbuds Snack
TASTEbuds Snacks has become one of the premier ice cream parlors serving Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. TASTEbuds was founded in February of 2017 and is owned and operated by the Hobbs Family of Pace. While TASTEbuds didn't begin as a full blown ice cream parlor, it has transitioned into just that. TASTEbuds offers a multitude of ways to enjoy your favorite ice cream to include scoops, sundaes, and Freak Shakes, in addition to many other options. In 2019, TASTEbuds added a mobile option to their store with an ice cream trailer and an ice cream cart. This has provided an opportunity to expand their business into catering special events such as weddings, birthdays, galas, and any other scenario that requires ice cream. TASTEbuds is dedicated to creating a fun, engaging experience for anyone who walks through their doors, and looks forward to sharing that experience with as many as possible as we move into the future.
Wolfgang, LLC
WolfGang is a dog business that is human friendly. Founded in 2021, our name comes from our Wolford Gang of 7. Furthering our love of pups, local beer, socializing, and all things Pensacola, we aim to create and organize events and safe places that allow us to enjoy all of those things at one time.
Our mission is simple. Find ways to create and organize events that are dog centered. Why leave your dog off of the invite when we can make them the star guest?! We will bring dogs and humans together with our events and inspire our community of dog owners and lovers to be a constant source of innovation in our city.
We continue to make this dream come true by being committed to working with local businesses to provide fun and unique events that will keep your puppy's tail wagging and you relaxed at all times. We continue to build on our goals of expanding and creating a safe environment for you and your 4-legged best friend to enjoy!
PREVIOUS MENTEES
Awala Hardwood
Awala Hardwood is an importer of reclaimed and sustainably harvested Caribbean and South American hardwoods and a provider of hardwood home décor.
Argo Cyber Systems
Located in Pensacola, Florida, Argo Cyber are true cyber security and intelligence experts offering 24/7 dedicated security monitoring of critical infrastructure assets, businesses, and other environments. They support monitoring of systems no matter where they are located. If companies use AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, on premise, or any combination of these, they can provide expert 24/7 cyber security monitoring. Argo Cyber leverages state of the art technology to deliver the best monitoring services possible. Their pricing model does not charge based on the number of assets or devices monitored. We use a consumption model which is based on the amount of data that is collected and processed through our system. This allows for greater flexibility when choosing which devices and assets to monitor.
Argo Cyber uses years of experience and expertise in information security, risk and compliance to identify vulnerabilities and assess technology so that businesses may minimize risks of a cybersecurity breach, or mitigate any losses should a breach occur. They help clients make informed decisions on how to manage security risks, helping to create customized and workable solutions. Argo Cyber also offers penetration testing on computer systems, networks, and web applications to find vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit.
Bird of Prey Fishing Tackle
Bird of Prey Fishing Tackle was started in 2013 by Brian and Bill Arnold to help fill a growing need for recreational and commercial fishing tackle along the Gulf Coast. Bird of Prey’s mission is to manufacture quality fishing tackle products that allow customers to help provide for their families while making memories that last a lifetime. Bird of Prey currently supplies several tackle stores and over 200 charter and commercial fishing operations spanning from Tampa, FL to Kemah, TX along the Gulf Coast.
Furthermore, Bird of Prey ‘s growing online retail customer base extends to all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Canada.
Bird of Prey was founded on a lifelong love for fishing, the outdoors, and conservation, combined with Bill Arnold’s 35 years of experience in fisheries biology and Brian Arnold’s background in mechanical engineering. This foundation has allowed Bird of Prey to create a wide range of products specifically designed to help fishermen target a wide range of inshore, offshore, and pelagic saltwater species. Bird of Prey works regularly with lifelong charter captains, commercial fishermen, and recreational fishermen to create new tackle and to further develop existing products.
Eastburn Woodworks
http://www.eastburnwoodworks.com/
Eastburn Woodworks is a family business that was started by Kenneth and Iris Eastburn in 1997. They produce furniture-quality custom cabinetry and millwork for the Gulf Coast area. Each project is built per order to bring our customers vision to light with a medley of function and beauty. Their goal is to create the tool they use to transition their house into a home.
De Luna Coffee International
De Luna Coffee is a family owned and operated, small batch coffee roaster that imports high grade green coffee from 13 different countries from Colombia to Kenya. The company was established in 2014 by Ed Lemox, who now runs the company with his wife, Courtney and son, Brett. De Luna Coffee combines gourmet coffee with a local flare, as they have collaborated with the United States Navy for their Blue Angels blend coffee, as well as with the Pensacola Police Department to create the Midnight Shift blend in honor of police officers and all first responders.
De Luna Coffee operates mainly in wholesale distribution of its products to a wide range of grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and offices. That range includes local Pensacola area establishments such as Joe Patti's, Apple Market, Global Grill, The Fish House, and Jackson's Steakhouse, to national clients such as Publix, Walmart, and the Navy Exchange.
WM Martin Transport
WM Martin Transportation is a 3rd Party Logistics Company specializing in domestic flatbed freight shipments in the Southeastern US. We bridge the gap between medium-large manufacturers and the deeply fragmented carrier capacity that exists in the marketplace. We do this through Technology, Excellence in Communication, and Expertise.
MI SU Street Food
In late 2021 husband and wife, Alden and Hylene Garcia formed an exciting partnership with Odd Colony Brewing Company, and subsequently changed their menu to a more permanent one that specialized in what they found to consistently be their best sellers; smash burgers & fried chicken sandwiches. They now have two employees and take immense pride in the fact that they are among Pensacola youngest entrepreneurs. Their overarching goal for the future of MI SU is to help push Pensacola towards a better standard for it’s service industry workers.
What Limits Project
Station 96
Station 96 is a niche cleaning, maintenance and repair company serving the restaurant community along the gulf coast that specialize in ensuring commercial kitchens maintain compliance with insurance and fire code requirements. While serving as the Fire Code Enforcement Officer for Air Force, Jay Wingfield realized the need for a competent, trained and certified cleaning company that understood not just the cleaning requirements but installation requirements as well. Station 96 was established in October of 2018 and began operations in July of 2019.
Station 96 spent the first nine months as a part time side job while Jay prepared for his retirement from the US military but quickly grew and is currently serving over 100 customers on a recurring basis. What was intended as an owner/operator company grew to four employees in a matter of months. The future goals are to expand with satellite offices throughout the southeast.
Warfighter Fitness
In 2018, Matthew Jeffries founded Warfighter Fitness after discovering obesity’s negative impact on our military and national security. He developed a web-based platform and app, to help expand the recruiting pool through accountability coaching. Warfighter Fitness has proven success in helping unfit recruits meet sign-up requirements and maintain healthier lifestyles. The ultimate mission is to expand Warfighter Fitness to civilians through corporate wellness programs and help those suffering from diabetes.
