Nine innovators from rural Oklahoma pitched their business ideas in front of a group of investors and guests at Oklahoma Farm Bureau’s Oklahoma Grassroots Rural and Ag Business Accelerators Demo Day on Thursday, Oct. 9, in Oklahoma City.
Demo Day serves as the capstone of the 2025 Activate Oklahoma and AgCelerate Oklahoma program cohorts, which featured innovators with business ideas to benefit both agriculture and rural Oklahoma.
Each participant had five minutes to present their business venture or innovation to Demo Day attendees, and they also visited one-on-one with potential investors and other individuals from the business community at individual booths after the program.
“The vision behind the Oklahoma Grassroots Rural and Ag Business Accelerators program has always been to support rural Oklahoma through elevating and equipping rural innovators to grow their businesses,” said OKFB President Rodd Moesel. “These individuals worked tirelessly in the months leading up to Demo Day, and it was a privilege to hear each of them get to share their unique ideas and showcase their hard work.”
AgCelerate Oklahoma participants included 4Ag Manufacturing, an agricultural company from Elk City that specializes in no-till farming equipment; LL Implement of Skiatook, which developed a variable no-till drill for two-wheeled tractors; and Whoa Netty, a Tahlequah-based company that upcycles hay net wrap into high-end flower pots.
Activate Oklahoma participants were CommonWall of Holdenville, a platform to connect rural residents with housing and maintenance services; Foviio of Bartlesville, a client management platform for professional photographers; Ransom’s BBQ of Tuttle, which has developed a line of signature BBQ sauces and rubs; SkyReach of Spencer which flies drones for local emergency services; Sober Sally’s of Choctaw, a rideshare service that transports impaired drivers and their vehicles; and Stenger Jugheads of Wagoner, which specializes in fish harvesting using jugline methods.
The nine businesses will now be considered for possible capital investment by investment partners who attended Demo Day.
A graduation ceremony was held for the nine businesses at the conclusion of Demo Day, marking their completion of the accelerator program’s comprehensive, hands-on business curriculum.
The Oklahoma Grassroots Rural and Ag Business Accelerators program is a rural development initiative from OKFB and program partners that provides a comprehensive idea and business curriculum to rural Oklahoma innovators based in communities with a population of 50,000 or less. The program provides two pipelines for rural innovators: Activate Oklahoma for business with innovations encompassing a wide array of industries and AgCelerate Oklahoma for innovators with an agriculture-specific idea or product.
