Springfield, MO Allocates $400,000 of CARES Act Funding for Small Business Support Grants

January 5, 2021News

Springfield, MO Allocates $400,000 of CARES Act Funding for Small Business Support Grants

Learn how to apply for grants up to $10,000.

CARES Act Funding

Springfield City Council recently allocated $1.1 million in Community Development Block Grant money issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide housing assistance, homelessness diversion, public services and business grants.

The funding will be allocated in the following categories:

$405,223 dedicated to small business grants

$331,776 dedicated to public services and homelessness diversion with

$385,016 dedicated to housing assistance

Small Business Grants

The grants for small business support are intended to help local small businesses respond to the business impacts of COVID-19. In order to qualify, a business owner must demonstrate a hardship that was caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. The maximum grant amount is $10,000. Businesses must have a physical location within the city limits of Springfield and must be a for-profit business. Business owners are encouraged to review the full application and eligibility criteria.

Grant applications will be processed in the order received. Applications must be complete in order to be processed.

Download City of Springfield CARES Act Round 2 Small Business Grant Application

This relief funding comes after Council approved $916,138 in CARES Act funding for affordable housing assistance, services for the homeless and forgivable economic recovery business loans in June. Approximately $400,000 of that funding was allocated in the form of forgivable small business loans.

Southwest MO Startup AgButler Connects Farmers to Workforce

January 4, 2021News

Southwest MO Startup AgButler Connects Farmers to Workforce

Learn how the startup is bringing agricultural labor into the gig economy.

Revitalizing Rural Farms

Agriculture is the heart of rural communities across the United States. And just like any other industry, farmers and ranchers have found themselves facing serious workforce challenges in recent years.

Producers spend valuable time and energy looking for skilled laborers to tend to crops, take care of livestock, and other activities that have to happen for their operation to remain economically viable. Social media channels are flooded with posts seeking part-time labor to help with milking cows, hauling hay, or clipping cattle. Each year hundreds of producers go without the help they need while laborers struggle to find work that matches their skills.

Introducing AgButler

Kevin Johansen is on a mission to solve this problem. Johansen is the founder and CEO of southwest Missouri based AgTech startup, AgButler, a solution that brings agriculture labor into the modern-day gig economy.

As a fifth-generation farmer and former day laborer, Johansen understood the challenges facing the industry and identified the missing piece. Johansen was born in Tipton, MO and later studied agriculture at Missouri State University. Throughout college and early adulthood he regularly worked as a day laborer and had a first-hand view into the workforce challenges facing agriculture. After returning to the family operation, he knew there needed to be a centralized platform connecting laborers to producers.

“The AgButler story directly connects with my foundation in agriculture. My family runs a Charolais and Hereford seedstock operation,” Johansen said. “Nothing gets me more excited than connecting farmers and ranchers from across the country with my fellow skilled laborers and to give back to the industry I was raised in.”

How It Works

AgButler is a mobile application designed to help solve agricultural workforce shortages. It works by creating a network of experienced ag laborers made accessible in real-time. Similar to ride-sharing, the platform allows farmers, ranchers and/or agribusinesses to connect with available laborers filtered by location, ratings, work experience and availability. The entire experience – from posting available work to being paid for completed labor – all lives within a secure structure organized in the app.

When surveyed, producers overwhelmingly cited reliability and trustworthiness as their top concerns when hiring labor. AgButler validates those characteristics by vetting laborers and building in accountability in the form of star ratings. The solution meets the needs of laborers, as well. Users can easily search for jobs and filter them to a particular radius of their location.

Industry Recognition

AgButler has already proven itself to be a popular solution. The platform was named the People’s Choice Winner in Farm Credit Services of America’s Innovation Challenge earlier this year and has secured endorsements from the National Center for Beef Excellence, Missouri State University’s William H. Darr College of Agriculture, University of Missouri Extension, the Missouri Farm Bureau, and Missouri Cattlemen’s Association.

Bringing AgButler to Market

Johansen has assembled a team with deep industry expertise and experience to bring AgButler to market. The initial launch efforts will be focused on Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas, where more than 350,000 individuals take part in paid farm work each year.

Expansion plans include Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota before ultimately moving both west and east to capture the rest of the United States. In total, nearly 2.5 million Americans are employed as farm workers across the U.S.

Southwest Missouri producers and laborers can sign up and get started today!

Building an ‘Innovation First’ Organization

December 14, 2020News, Partners

Building an 'Innovation First' Organization

We sat down with local innovation leaders to learn how they equip their employees to embrace innovation and continuous improvement.

Supporting Innovation Across Southwest Missouri

We know innovation isn’t just for startups. Many of our region’s largest and most established employers are constantly innovating to meet new demands. These leaders are doing important work in our community, which inspired us to create the Springfield Entrepreneurial & Innovation Network. The network is a peer group for local business leaders focused on innovation and continuous improvement. The group is dedicated to innovations and improvements that are driving businesses and our community forward.

You know what we like to say around here. Community is who we are. Forward is where we’re going. We believe our work to convene these leaders plays an important role in moving us all forward. We’re thankful to know they feel the same way.

Building an ‘Innovation First’ Organization

The group recently got together for a roundtable discussion led by James Jeffries, Partner at Kutak Rock and Teresa McGeehan, Owner/Operator of a network of McDonald’s restaurants. James has spent the last 15 years as an attorney specializing in intellectual property, trademark, and copyright law. And before he helped people protect their intellectual property he spent time developing some himself as a software engineer for MasterCard. He’s been on both sides of the table and understands what businesses need to know to protect their innovations.

Teresa McGeehan has worked with the McDonald’s brand since she was 16 years old. Today she owns and operates a network of the restaurants across southwest Missouri that employs more than 1,000 people. She’s worked to implement a wide range of innovations at McDonald’s throughout the years and has a first-hand view into how the brand with more than 38,000 physical restaurants across 100 countries innovates to meet customer demands.

The two shared their insights into how organizations can equip employees to innovate, how leaders can demonstrate an ‘innovation first’ approach, and how you can learn just as much from a failure as you do from a success.

Tips for Building an Innovative Organization

Examine Your Policies

If asked, most organizations and leaders would say they want to be innovative. Those good intentions don’t equate to actual innovations. Whether intentional or not, an organization may have policies or other barriers in place that stifle innovation and discourage employees from bringing forward new ideas.

It’s important to take a look at all policies and revise or remove them, as necessary. It’s also equally important to consider what policies aren’t in place. Organizations may want to codify incentives for employee innovations. If there is no framework for how employees bring ideas forward, how projects are piloted, or how new ideas are evaluated, employees may assume that those activities are discouraged.

Communicate Your Values

It’s important to have policies in place that reflect a commitment to innovation. Beyond that, it’s important to communicate those policies and values to the entire organization.

Create a messaging plan that consistently reinforces the organization’s commitment to innovation. Remind everyone of the importance of process improvement, and encourage leaders to echo this message to their teams. Leaders should imagine any employee at any level being stopped and asked if their employer is innovative – What would they say?

Plan for Pilots

Piloting new ideas is an important step in any innovation process. Organizations should have plans in place for how to pilot new ideas, be prepared to designate the appropriate resources to pilots, and should have clear evaluation standards in place for each project.

Involve Everyone

Diversity is a critical component of innovation. Groups formed to focus on innovation should involve employees from all aspects of the organization. It’s important to bring together different perspectives, tenures, and backgrounds. While some leadership presence is likely in the mix, consider asking senior members to take a back seat and refrain from taking charge of the conversations.

Innovation groups and exploratory committees are great – but don’t let these structures become the only means of generating new ideas within an organization. Innovation should be everyone’s business.

Learn from Failures

A truly innovative organization will have plenty of failures. Customer needs may change, business models may shift, and pilots may fail. Organizations have an opportunity to learn at every step along the way.

It’s important for leaders to be prepared to embrace failures, learn from the process, and encourage everyone involved. The things that don’t work can provide the best data for future innovations. Organizations that embrace all aspects of innovation – including the failures – will ultimately reap the greatest rewards.

Work With Us

Are you looking to build an innovation first culture, but don’t know where to start? If you’re unsure of where to begin or how to conquer common stumbling blocks – let us know! We regularly work with organizations or all sizes to create customized innovation initiatives.

Double Jump Media Outgrows the efactory

December 11, 2020Members, News

Double Jump Media Graduates from efactory Incubator

Learn what the video production house has been up to since outgrowing their office at the efactory.

Double Jump Media Moves Up & Out

The efactory is a special place. It’s a hub for entrepreneurs and innovators – and being here provides a front-row seat to what some of the most exciting companies in our region are working on. One of those companies is Double Jump Media – founded in 2014 and having had a presence at the efactory since 2016. Over those four years Ben Clayton and members of his team have flexed and grown through many of our spaces, including stints in coworking, small offices, and some of our largest private spaces. Through it all we’ve watched the company grow and build a portfolio of work for domestic and international clients, including Wal-Mart, Forbes, and Dairy Farmers of America.

And while they were making great use of nearly 900 square feet of office space at the efactory earlier this year, the time had come for something bigger. Something way bigger. This fall the team of seven moved up and out into a 3,750 square foot space just outside downtown. The new location includes 10 private offices, a conference room, and studio space.

Office locations may have changed, but Double Jump’s commitment to clients remains the same. The team has had a busy year developing videos for clients across the country, including a project for a COVID-related Kickstarter that helped the client raise over $300,000 on the crowd-funding platform.

Thermbot is an innovative thermometer that has been featured in publications such as CNET , International Business Times, and British national newspaper The Times. Double Jump Media was approached by the Brooklyn company in June to help produce a video for their campaign which launched in late July 2020. Thermbot’s original campaign goal was $18,000, which was fully funded within the first seven hours of the Kickstarter going live.

Thermbot was particularly interested in the creative spin that Double Jump could put on their pre-existing, straightforward script. Founder and CEO of Double Jump, Ben Clayton, noted that this is part of what draws clients from all over the world to his company.

“What we were able to accomplish in partnership with Thermbot shows that the midwest filmmakers can play with the ‘big boys’ on the coasts. The cost of living here helps to keep our pricing lower than our competitors’ in bigger cities, but more and more we see clients realizing that that doesn’t mean we sacrifice on the creative or the quality. In fact, it can mean just the opposite.”

– Ben Clayton,
Founder & CEO of Double Jump Media

Double Jump Media Gives Back

The team at Double Jump Media is also preparing to roll out a new internship program in partnership with the Geek Foundation, focusing on furthering film education for women and minorities in Springfield.

This program will assist in creating a space for hands-on, real-world knowledge about video production and technology. It will also provide paid internships at Double Jump Media for those in the program. The team is stoked to partner with a female-led and minority-focused nonprofit to make a difference in Springfield.

Successful Exits

Saying goodbye is hard, but ultimately it’s our goal for clients to outgrow the efactory. Double Jump Media is in good company as efactory alums. Other recent efactory graduates include Added Innovation, Botix Automation, and Hearo Technologies.

Are you next?

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, we’re ready to help. Get in touch to learn more about private offices, coworking memberships, and more.

Doug Harris with 3D&L Wins 2020 Pitch Contest

November 18, 2020News

Doug Harris with 3D&L Wins 2020 Pitch Contest

Innovative Plumbing Support Products Win $10,000 at 2020 Pitch Contest

Doug Harris, founder of 3D&L, won a $10,000 cash prize along with other in-kind awards at the efactory’s 2020 Pitch Contest, presented by RMI.

Harris was one of five participating companies that took to the virtual stage in this year’s Pitch Contest during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Each company delivered a five minute presentation followed by brief Q&A with the judging panel.

Watch the Pitches

3D&L creates custom, 3D-printed plumbing support products that hold pipes in place while plumbers are working at a job site. The 3d-printed parts simplify the plumbers’ workflow when installing cross-linked polyethylene tubing for jobs such as bathrooms and water fountains.

Right now the products are typically sold on a per-job basis, with local suppliers such as Harry Cooper Supply Co. purchasing larger quantities to stock the product.

The efactory’s 2020 Pitch Contest was presented by RMI, a recognized 504 Loan Program leader focused on improving the economic well-being of individuals, businesses and communities. The RMI team has earned a reputation for excellence by consistently meeting the high standards of the commercial lenders and borrowers they serve. RMI serves all of Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas, as well as parts of Illinois.

Supporting sponsors included Kutak Rock, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Missouri Small Business Development Center at Missouri State University.

Kingdom Retailers Launches New Outdoor Recreation Platform

October 27, 2020Members, News

Kingdom Retailers Launches New Outdoor Recreation Platform

A New Solution for Outdoor Recreation

Our clients are constantly innovating to develop new solutions. We love to see new products developed, new markets entered, and new brands launched. Today we’re excited to celebrate the launch of Kingdom Rec, the newest addition to Kingdom Retailers’ family of brands.

There’s never been a better time to get outside and enjoy some fresh air. And Kingdom Rec has everything you need to take your outdoor adventures to the next level. From camping and hiking to fishing and archery – with over 180 brands like Bushnell, Leupold, Wenzel, Kuuma, and Ravin – Kingdom Rec has the products you need for any outdoor adventure.

A Commitment to Customer Service

Kingdom Retailers prides themselves on outstanding customer service and a high level of integrity across their family of brands. All customer service is handled by local, in-house staff, meaning the person you talk to knows the products, brands, and purchasing process on a level not found at today’s big box stores.

Outdoor Adventures in the Ozarks

The Ozarks are rich with outdoor experiences. It’s no surprise to see lots of great startups in this space, including efactory accelerator portfolio company Easy Access Hunts and 2019 Pitch Contest participant 37 North Expeditions. So the next time you book a hunting excursion, plan a hike, or just want to get outside – be sure to grab your gear from Kingdom Rec.

efactory Announces Partnership with Brex

October 22, 2020News

efactory Announces New Partnership with Brex

The company is offering exclusive discounts and benefits to efactory client companies

A New Partnership with Brex

We’re excited to add a new platform to our efactory member perks program – Brex!

Brex is reimagining financial systems so every growing company can realize their full potential. Put simply, they’re building the financial OS for the next generation of business. Brex puts credit cards, bank accounts, payments, expenses, and accounting all in one place to keep founders in control of their growth.

Thousands of businesses use Brex to manage their finances. The company serves newly-founded startups, established tech companies, life sciences companies, and ecommerce brands alike, helping founders and their teams stay focused on what they care about most.

Brex Benefits

Replace your bank with Brex Cash — a free, easy-to-use cash management account. Initiate free unlimited ACH and wire transfers, all without setting foot into a bank. Brex Cash also comes with the Brex 1 Card — a credit card with a 1-day payment cycle to spend funds, build business credit, and earn rewards (up to 8x back).

Additionally, Brex provides a 30-day credit card that comes without a personal guarantee, higher credit limits, and valuable rewards (up to 7x back).

Through the partnership, efactory client companies are eligible to receive 55K points, $5K in AWS credits, and priority onboarding.

Additional Perks

The Brex discount is one of several benefits available to efactory client companies. Companies are also eligible for savings from Google, Amazon Web Services, HubSpot, and more.

Succession Planning for Your Business

October 16, 2020News, Partners

Succession Planning for Your Business

Andy Peebles with efactory partner Carnahan, Evans, Cantwell & Brown shares his insights into succession planning for your business.

Succession Planning for Your Business

Imagine this scenario: You’ve worked your entire life to turn what was once seen as a risky and unlikely business venture into a successful and profitable company that you are immensely proud of. Your company’s name is known far and wide for providing an excellent service or a well-crafted product, you’ve grown from one employee to 100 loyal workers, and your bottom line continues to increase year over year. You have finally reached the point in your career that you feel comfortable retiring to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

However, you realize you have absolutely no idea who should take over your company to lead it successfully into the future. What happens to your dream-turned-reality when you are no longer around to lead it?

This situation is quite common for business owners, and it can be a daunting thing to consider. This is where a proper business succession plan comes into play.

Succession planning involves a series of logistical and financial decisions about who will take over your business at certain key events in your life, such as retirement, death or disability. This usually involves a written buy-sell agreement, which provides step-by-step instructions as to No. 1, when a transfer of your business is required; No. 2, who should take over management and ownership at those key events; and No. 3, the ultimate terms of the purchase (e.g. price and payment).

Triggering Events

Most succession plans provide for a transfer of the business at death and retirement. However, the best plans also take disability and involuntary transfers (e.g. divorce or bankruptcy) into consideration.

Care should be taken to properly define the term disability. For example, exactly how long must you be disabled before ownership is transferred? What if you are lucid enough to make personal care decisions, but unable to understand every single financial aspect of your business? How disabled do you really need to be before your trusted successor steps in? These, and other questions, must not be overlooked.

Selecting a Successor

Clearly, one of the most vital parts of a proper succession plan is determining what trusted individual(s) will take over your business in the future. As a business owner, you have the option to sell your ownership interest to your fellow co-owners, family members, key employees, an outside third party or even to the company itself

The ideal successor will be business-savvy, familiar with your particular business, experienced in the industry and respected by your staff, all of which can ease the transition. It may be helpful to keep an updated list of your potential successors, including their respective strengths and your order of consideration.

Payment Terms

Outlining the value of your business and how your successor must pay for your ownership interest are essential provisions to include in a succession plan. It is advisable to utilize your certified public accountant or employ a professional business broker or valuation expert to assist in formulating an accurate value for your business.

Once a value is set, you will need to determine if your successor must pay for the entire cost in full at closing or whether they may pay for the interest over a certain time period. Often, the purchase price will be secured through a life insurance policy on the owner’s life or through a loan.

The most prudent business owner will plan for all of these decisions in advance, providing all interested parties and potential successors a timeline of when a succession should take place. Keep in mind that an exit from your business may not always be foreseeable, especially when it comes to incapacity or death. Therefore, the sooner a business owner gets a strong succession plan in place, the better. Such a plan will undoubtedly relieve stress for the owner, the successor, and the employees, and ensure that the successful business they worked so hard to develop thrives for years to come.

Brought to You by Our Partners

Andy Peebles is an estate planning and business attorney with our corporate partners at Carnahan, Evans, Cantwell & Brown PC. In addition to advising business owners on succession planning strategies Andy also regularly meets with business owners during efactory office hours.

efactory Announces Partnership with MainStreet

October 5, 2020News

efactory Partners with MainStreet to Help Startups Save Millions

The company is offering discounts to efactory client companies

A New Partnership with MainStreet

We’re excited to add a new platform to our efactory member perks program – MainStreet!

MainStreet is a government incentives search engine that automatically claims tax credits, and advances interest-free cash, on behalf of startups. And now it’s easier than ever for efactory clients to access the tax credits designed for them.

MainStreet benefits

The US government annually earmarks $100B in tax credits, deductions, and refunds for startups and small businesses. Only 4% of this money is claimed. MainStreet empowers all founders to collect their share of economic benefits in less than 45 minutes.

The MainStreet Platform:

Contains over 50 federal and state credits.
Reduces discovery and claim time by 95%.
Lowers end-user costs by up to 50%.
Advances founders/operators interest-free cash in under a week.

Through the program, efactory client companies are eligible for a 25% discount.

MainStreet is on track to save startups $100M+ by year’s end and is advancing $10,000s in monthly non-dilutive, interest-free capital against eligible tax credits.

Additional perks

The MainStreet discount is one of several benefits available to efactory client companies. Companies are also eligible for savings from Google, Amazon Web Services, HubSpot, and more.

Compatio Transforms Ecommerce Landscape with Smart Recommendation System

September 2, 2020Featured, Members, News

Compatio Transforms Ecommerce Landscape with Smart Recommendation System

Transforming Ecommerce

Have you ever bought one thing, but had difficulty figuring out which things go with it? Most of the things we use each day are actually a combination of products, accessories, and components that come together to create a solution. For many of us, finding these perfect combinations for our bicycling, fishing, or other equipment is daunting.

Compatio is focused on making complex products in any industry easier to buy online. Take fly fishing, for example. A fly fishing outfit is complex and there are thousands of products a customer could buy that may or may not work well together. If they were in a physical store, a customer may be able to find a salesperson with extensive knowledge and the ability to point them in the right direction.

Stores pride themselves on the experience they provide on the shop floor, but that same 1:1 customer service experience is incredibly difficult to bring to life online. Thousands more customers can visit an online store, it’s open every minute of the day, and competitors are always just a click away. Online stores selling complex products will have to think very differently to handle the coming ecommerce wave.

Compatio’s XRS, or Expert Recommendation System, solves this dilemma for merchants and customers alike. For customers there’s no more guessing about which item is right for their needs, and they’re less likely to need to make a return. Product returns cost retailers from 7-15% of their revenue each year. If that can be reduced by even a fraction, it directly improves their bottom line.

Helping Retailers Improve the Ecommerce Experience

The coronavirus pandemic has presented retailers with a myriad of challenges. Many brick and mortar shops pivoted to online sales, but discovered the expertise held by shop owners and sales floor associates doesn’t translate neatly to an online experience. Chatbots and customer service phone lines fail to scale and don’t serve customers efficiently.

In order to get the right product into customers’ hands, retailers need a smart recommendation system that helps shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for. Compatio’s smart recommendation system does just that.

Today XRS is live and in use in the fly fishing industry, but the potential applications for Compatio’s technology are far reaching. The outdoor recreation industry alone presents a massive opportunity for an improved online experience and increased sales.

“Compatio is responding to what looks to us to be an impending perfect storm. First, ecommerce has exploded this year – retailers have done extremely well, especially those that focus on gear that helps people get out and away from the crowds. But that’s a double-edged sword because there is always a shakeout. That’s coming, even though it doesn’t look like it right now. At the same time, product expertise has not made the leap to digital. That friendly, knowledgeable person behind the counter does not exist on the typical ecommerce site”, said Tim Baynes, Compatio founder and CEO.

“Customers will demand more from their online experience, and those retailers who can nail that experience will ultimately prevail. And finally, ecommerce platforms currently aren’t designed to sell multi-product solutions: they sell individual products. So it’s really hard to find just the right gear, put it together into a personalized solution, and buy it. Compatio was built from the ground up to solve that problem.”

About Compatio

Compatio is a software platform that makes it easy for customers to find products that go together. Whether it’s finding the perfect crank set for your bicycle or a high-end lens for your specialty camera, Compatio turns compatibility from a research project into a click.

Compatio is an efactory accelerator portfolio company and private office client at the efactory. Headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, founder Tim Baynes leads a team distributed across Missouri, California, Ireland, and India.

Meet a New Member: Leadership Springfield Joins the efactory

September 1, 2020Featured, Members, News

Meet a New Member: Leadership Springfield Joins the efactory

Welcoming New Members

There’s nothing better than watching people pursue their passions. Part of what we think makes the efactory so special is the mix of companies and individuals working under the same roof on things they believe in. And when there’s a new organization added to the mix? That’s even better!

Learn more about our newest member, Leadership Springfield, and their important work to propel our community forward.

About Leadership Springfield

Leadership Springfield is a community leadership organization that seeks to inspire, develop, and connect leaders to serve the Springfield community. The organization facilitates community leadership programs for area professionals of all ages as well as local students, unlocking potential and equipping participants to meet needs in our community.

Through a strengths-based approach, Leadership Springfield programs build professional leadership development skills and increase community engagement. Leadership Springfield programs include the Signature Class, Academy Class, and Access Class.

As a member of the national Association of Leadership Programs, Leadership Springfield uses a community leadership framework model that provides program participants with tools to frame ideas, mobilize resources, and build social capital. With an alumni network of more than 2,000 graduates, Leadership Springfield has produced more than three decades of alumni members who are making lasting impacts across the Springfield community.

Connecting Our Community

Here at the efactory we’re all about connecting people for the greater good, so we’re thrilled to have Leadership Springfield as the newest member of our coworking space. Their mission supports everything we believe in – that Springfield is a special place full of people positioned to make a difference.

If you’re looking for space to work on something you believe in, drop us a line. We offer private offices for startups and flexible coworking memberships that include plenty of great perks.

carGO Partners with Missouri State University to Launch “MSU On the Go”

August 18, 2020Featured, Members, News

carGO Partners with Missouri State University to Launch “MSU On the Go”

The new app provides students, faculty, and staff access to on-campus restaurants, options for ordering ahead, getting delivery, and more.

MSU On the Go

Missouri State University has been hard at work preparing for a successful fall semester, and part of that important work includes forming new partnerships to provide new services and increased options to students, faculty, and staff.

One of these exciting new partnerships involves efactory client carGO. The on-demand ride and delivery service has announced a new program, MSU On the Go.

MSU on the GO is the only mobile app that gives Missouri State University students, faculty, and staff access to on-campus restaurants and options for ordering ahead, getting delivery and spending Dining Dollars on their purchases.

Student delivery runners will be stationed inside the Plaster Student Union and will bring on-campus restaurant orders directly to users anywhere on Missouri State University grounds.

These new options will allow students, faculty, and staff more flexibility than ever before in choosing when, where, and how to access dining options on campus. Missouri State University’s campus restaurants include Panda Express, Freddy’s, Subway and Einstein’s Bagels.

App users can also order from more than 80 off-campus restaurants and can request ride share services through the app. Ride share services and orders from off-campus restaurants cannot be paid for with MSU Dining Dollars.

To celebrate the beginning of a new semester, app users will receive free delivery from on- and off-campus restaurants with every order placed using MSU On the Go through September 7, 2020.

About carGO

carGO is a Missouri-based transportation network company committed to providing comprehensive on-demand delivery and ride services to underserved, mid-tier cities throughout the U.S. carGO launched in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 2017, expanded in 2018 to serve Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and expanded again in 2019 to serve Springfield, Missouri.

Unlike similar services, carGO is homegrown, customer-driven, and operates a local network operations center and office in every market the company serves. carGO is an efactory member company.

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