The BBJ's Inno Under 25 spotlight showcases some of the area's most promising young innovators who are acting now to kickstart their careers.
By thinking global and acting local, these young people are making their presence known, and all are age 25 and younger. In choosing the nominees, the BBJ sought recommendations from within the region's startup community.
This marks another year that Alabama Inno has unveiled a class of Inno Under 25 honorees, with each class just as impressive as the last. It's a cliche to say the future is bright. It also undersells the point. Because the future isn't just bright — it's also ambitious, enthusiastic, courageous and really, really intelligent.
The annual awards showcase some of the brightest young innovators across the state's startup and technology ecosystem. Honorees could be founders of early-stage and growing startups, innovators in a specific tech field or those helping drive growth at established companies or organizations.
Have a young entrepreneur in mind for next year's Inno awards platforms? Nominations are open. Check them out here.
2024 Inno Under 25
Zuaiter is 23 years old and graduated with a bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences and a minor in Spanish from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is currently an incoming student at Samford McWhorter School of Pharmacy and for the past 1.5 years, has worked as a scientist at Cerflux. She has been part of multiple published papers, as well as been invited to display her abstract at the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Woods is 21 years old and earned a bachelor's degree in business marketing and sales from the University of Alabama. He is the co-founder of TappedIn, which was founded in 2023 and aims to help college students make more connections through a community app. Woods pitched TappedIn at a student pitch competition at Sloss Tech and won first place, earning $5,000 for his company.
Rainer is 20 years old and currently earning his bachelor's of science in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial studies. He has experience in roles like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor, journalist and staffing intern at a local staffing firm. Freshman year, Rainer and his classmates designed a hiring app that operates similarly to a dating app, and earlier this year he won grant money for a peanut logistics businesses that aims to benefit farmers around Alabama.
Meek is 21 years old, has an associate in arts degree from Jefferson State Community College and is currently earning a degree in business entrepreneurship from UAB to gain skills to scale her photography business. Her photography has been displayed at the Robin Nance Art Competition hosted at the Shelby County Arts Council.
Halliwill is 23 years old, has earned an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and is currently earning a master's in business administration from UAB with expectations to graduate in spring 2025. She has served in roles like quality intern at Micropulse and associate digital product engineer at BioHorizons. In August, she started a new role as a quality engineer for the Liebherr Group.
Patel is 21 years old and is the founder and president of Krown Petroleum. He grew up working alongside his parents, who owned stores and has expertise in construction and underground storage tank systems. He has a finance and entrepreneurship degree from UAB. Through Krown Petro, Patel works with companies such as MAPCO, Shell, Circle K and others.
Wright is 24 years old and earned a degree in computer science from Alabama A&M. She is the co-founder of SquidPunk, a collaborative studio focused on creating diverse animated and interactive experiences. She has experience in roles like machine learning intern for Apple and Activision and data science intern for RockStar Games.
