From first pitches to full-circle wins, founders from across the Texas Tech System and West Texas take the next step toward commercialization.
Some startups arrive at the Texas Tech University Innovation Hub with a polished pitch deck and years of research behind them. Others show up with a rough idea, a notebook full of questions, and the willingness to keep coming back.
The 2026 Accelerator Competition proved both paths can lead to the same place.
On Thursday evening, surrounded by founders, faculty, investors, mentors, and community supporters, the Innovation Hub announced the winners of the 2026 Accelerator Competition… 13 startup teams selected to receive $40,000 in seed funding and a coveted place in the year-long Texas Tech Accelerator Program as its 10th cohort.
But the real story of the night was not just who won.
It was how they got there.
For many of these founders, this moment was not a beginning. It was a return.
It was Red Raider Startup weekends that turned into prototypes. It was NSF I-Corps customer discovery that sharpened the problem. It was iLaunch Competitions that revealed what still needed work. It was second attempts, stronger pitches, and the decision to keep showing up.
The Accelerator Competition stage was the final reveal, but the story had been building for years.
The Founders Who Came Back Stronger
For some teams, the win represented persistence.
Texas Tech University student founder Jacob Gann and his team behind Wounded Wilson have been part of nearly every corner of the Innovation Hub ecosystem. From Red Raider Startup to iLaunch and previous Accelerator Competition rounds, they kept refining their idea: a multi-functional law enforcement training manikin that combines medical, tactical, and restraint simulation into one durable platform.
This year, they returned… and won.
Community founder Andres Reales followed a similar path. His venture, Story Writing Lab, an educational game designed to help students rediscover creative writing, has grown through multiple Innovation Hub programs over time. After competing in last year’s Accelerator Competition, he came back stronger, proving that momentum often comes from staying in the room.
For James Woodley, founder of CocoaMoo LLC, this year’s win carried history, too. After reaching the Top 10 in the 2025 iLaunch Competition Finals, CocoaMoo continued developing its sugar-free, dairy-free chocolate milk mix designed to bring healthier options to the chocolate milk market. This year, that progress translated into a place in Cohort 10.
Some wins happen quickly.
Others are built in layers.
When Research Leaves the Lab
For faculty and researchers, the Accelerator Competition often marks the moment research starts moving beyond campus.
Dr. Kaytlin Krutsch’s Milk Monitor is one of those stories. After participating in NSF I-Corps and validating the need for accessible breast milk testing, her product, designed to help breastfeeding mothers test for active cannabis metabolites, continued gaining traction. Accelerator funding now helps move that research closer to the families who need it.
Dr. Shashi Sachdev’s HiPR Link Research LLC tells an even bigger full-circle story.
Several years ago, he founded HiPR Innovation, a startup that successfully moved through the Accelerator and launched. Now, he returns with HiPR Link, an AI-powered SaaS platform that matches medical students and physicians for research collaboration, reducing faculty workload and increasing academic productivity.
That return says something important: founders do not just graduate from the ecosystem. They build within it again.
Across the finalist pool, faculty from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the Huckabee College of Architecture, the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and the Rawls College of Business Administration brought innovations ranging from sustainable agriculture to robotics, healthcare, and education.
Each one started with the same question: What if this could work in the real world?
Now they get to answer it.
The 10th Cohort Takes Shape
The 2026 Accelerator Competition winners and members of the Texas Tech Accelerator’s 10th Cohort are:
Agency-Conduit, ClayPonic, Classed, CocoaMoo LLC, HiPR Link Research LLC., Milk Monitor, Norrod Products, ResidAlly, Story Writing Lab, ViMex Genomics, West Camp Nopal, and Wounded Wilson.
Together, they represent students, faculty, alumni, and community founders solving problems across industries from insurance technology and hydroponic farming to medical research, robotics, public safety, and global food security.
The Moment Everything Changes
There is always a moment during Accelerator Competition when the room shifts. Before the announcements, it is anticipation.
Then the names are called.
And suddenly, years of work become visible.
A second chance becomes a yes.
A side project becomes a company.
A research question becomes a commercial pathway.
That is what the Texas Tech Accelerator Program was built for. Not just to fund startups, but to create a place where ideas can keep returning until they are ready to grow. As the Accelerator enters its 10th cohort, the story is bigger than one competition night.
It is about what happens when an innovation ecosystem keeps its doors open long enough for people to come back stronger. And this year, they did.