New Mexico Inno's 2024 Startups to Watch list highlights 10 startups we expect to capture headlines in the year ahead. The New Mexico Inno editorial team picked out the 10 companies through a nomination process and our own research and reporting.
You can read all about these 10 Startups to Watch in the Feb. 2 print edition of Albuquerque Business First. The startups will also be featured individually on the New Mexico Inno site in the coming days.
Cannabis has become a major industry in New Mexico and the state's economy. An Albuquerque-based startup founded by a professional with years of cannabis industry experience wants to help cannabis companies maintain compliance, build better procedures and, ultimately, grow.
Kady Cravens founded BuildMySOP in 2021. The startup's name includes the acronym SOP, which means "standards of procedure" — the rules, regulations and operations that govern cannabis operations.
The startup has two types of services — templates it sets up for different facility types and on-hand compliance and process review services. Cannabis companies can either buy a customizable template for their unique operation, whether it be cultivation, manufacturing, retail or transportation and delivery, or hire a BuildMySOP employee to walk with them through that process.
Cravens said she spent years working in various jobs in the cannabis industry, from janitor to head of operations.
"What I realized every time that I went into a facility that had a problem, it all came down to either the lack of the SOP, an outdated SOP or an SOP had not been trained on," she said. "So, no standards and no way to hold anyone accountable for anything."
BuildMySOP, which employs six people, has dozens of clients in New Mexico. The startup has brought on over 50 clients in the past two and a half years across 12 states, she said. It's generated about $750,000 in revenue over the past two years.
As part of that growth, BuildMySOP, late last year, went through a merger process. Chorus Compliance, a subsidiary of Santa Cruz, California-based SC Labs, bought BuildMySOP, integrating the Albuquerque startup's platform in what Cravens said is a win-win deal for both companies.
Cravens said Chorus' existing software will help support BuildMySOP's operations through more advanced technology, including artificial intelligence.
Merging BuildMySOP's features into Chorus' compliance platform will be a big focus in 2024. Transferring clients over to that new platform will be another major part of the startup's work in 2024, too, Cravens said.
And Cravens said she wants to continue to be an educator for the cannabis community in terms of the importance of standard operating procedures.
2024 Startups to Watch
Startups to Watch 2024
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El Paso-based FundMiner, co-founded by Alejandro Stevenson-Druan, left, and Chelsea Lamego in 2022. The startup has built an AI-powered software platform to help nonprofits and other large fundraising organizations manage finances and improve financial efficiency.
Dav Anmed
Los Alamos-based Spiritus Technologies, co-founded by CEO Charles Cadieu, left, and CTO Matt Lee, Ph.D., came out of stealth in September 2023. The startup plans to build direct air capture sites using a type of sorbent technology it claims can drastically reduce the cost of removing carbon from the air.
Courtesy of Spiritus Technologies
Albuquerque-based Karoo Health, co-founded by CEO Ian Koons (pictured here) in 2021. The startup has a value-based cardiac health care system that combines on-site and virtual care teams in partnership with cardiology networks, health plans and health systems.
Photo courtesy of Ian Koons
Santa Fe-based Mercury Bio, co-founded by CEO Bruce McCormick (pictured here), emerged from stealth in August 2023. The startup has a biomolecular drug delivery platform that involves drug encapsulation in natural nanoparticles and cell-specific targeting.
Courtesy of Bruce McCormick
Albuquerque-based BuildMySOP, founded by CEO Kady Cravens (pictured here) in 2020. The startup, which recently went through an acquisition deal, helps cannabis companies build and manage standards of procedure through templates and on-hand compliance and process review.
Courtesy Kady Cravens
Los Lunas-based Cheshir Industries, founded by CEO Nicolas Garcia, Ph.D. (pictured here) in late 2022. The startup is developing a gradient index antenna technology that it claims can increase power efficiency and multi-functionality by as much as 10 times.
Courtesy of Nicolas Garcia
Albuquerque-based VastVision.io, co-founded by CEO Kyle Guin (pictured here) in early 2023. The startup has rolled out a software platform that large businesses can use to keep track of physical assets via ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification chips to track assets's location and movement.
Courtesy of Kyle Guin
El Paso-based AizenFlow, co-founded by CEO Marco Vallejo Jr., left, CTO Ian Love, center, and Chief Revenue Officer JaQuan Bryant, right, chief revenue officer, in early 2023. The startup aims to help freight brokerages better manage logistics using artificial intelligence and digital automation processes.
Courtesy of AizenFlow
Los Alamos-based Undesert, co-founded by CEO Nicholas Seet (pictured here) and CTO Hill Kemp in 2021. The startup has developed a technology for purifying different sorts of brackish and produced water using solar energy.
Samantha DAnna
Albuquerque-based Flow Aluminum, co-founded by CTO Chris Fetrow, left, and CEO Tom Chepucavage, right, in late 2022. The startup is commercializing an aluminum CO2 battery design for applications ranging from drone power to large-scale energy storage.
Jacob Maranda
