July 30, 2026 · More Stories
From Tuskegee to Tech Row: How Feedcoyote Is Building in Alabama
For many freelancers, growth has limits because the work is often done alone. Dr. Stevens Bonhomme knows firsthand. He supported himself through freelancing while in school, juggling projects without a built-in network or team.
“You can find gigs,” he said, “but to find repeated work, you need that support system that feeds you into more opportunities.”
Years later, after a career at Microsoft, he came back to a simple idea: what if freelancers didn’t have to work alone to grow? That question led to Feedcoyote, a Birmingham-based company building a platform designed to help freelancers connect, collaborate and take on larger opportunities together.
“We connect the right people with the right opportunities at the right time,” Bonhomme said. “Freelancers can combine expertise and go after higher-value work together.”
The idea is straightforward, but the response has been significant. Feedcoyote now has over 205,000 users and has grown more than 600% over the past year, fueled largely by its own community.
“We’re onboarding about 10,000 new users a month,” he said. “It’s wild how fast it’s growing.”
Bringing More of the Work into One Place
Feedcoyote brings several pieces of freelance work into one place. Users can connect with others, showcase their work, manage projects, and handle payments all within a single platform. But the bigger shift is how people use it. Instead of competing for the same jobs, freelancers can team up, so developers can work alongside designers, or marketers can join larger projects, making it possible to take on work that would be difficult to do alone.
“Freelancers need more than just gigs. They need a system that helps them grow.”
Most platforms, Dr. Bonhomme said, stop at job matching. “They give you access to gigs, but beyond that, what else?” he said. “Freelancers need more than just gigs. They need a system that helps them grow.”
Building in Alabama
That perspective is also what brought Dr. Bonhomme back to Alabama to build. Dr. Bonhomme earned his economics degree at Tuskegee University, where relationships with professors and mentors remain part of his network today.
His return through the Bronze Valley Investment Accelerator, powered by gener8tor, connected him to a network of founders, mentors and investors, linking early talent development with access to capital and support to scale.
“I loved it,” he said of his experience in Birmingham. “It really reaffirmed my conviction on community.”
Bronze Valley is a key component of Alabama’s startup ecosystem, helping founders access the relationships, guidance and resources needed to scale. For Wright, Feedcoyote represents the kind of company that emerges when those connections come together.
“Feedcoyote is solving a problem every independent worker eventually runs into: growth alone has a ceiling,” said Neill Wright, president and CEO of Bronze Valley. “Our accelerator gave them the resources to break through it, and it’s a great example of Alabama’s innovation ecosystem becoming more connected every day.”
Now headquartered in Tech Row, the company is continuing to scale from within the state. Feedcoyote’s model depends on connection and shared growth, and being in an environment that prioritizes collaboration has influenced how both the platform and the team evolve
“Everybody embraced what we’re building,” he said. “It’s the community that’s carrying the growth.”
Together, those pieces are helping make it more possible for founders to start, return and grow companies in Alabama.
Growing Alongside Its Users
Much of that growth is driven by the community itself. New users join daily, often through referrals, and many contribute directly to the platform by testing features or shaping product updates.
“I look at it as over 200,000 collaborators,” Dr. Bonhomme said. “We build the platform with our users, based on their feedback and what they want.”
Feedcoyote is focused on its next stage of growth, with a goal of reaching over one million users soon. As an InvestAL portfolio company, the company is continuing to build in Alabama while scaling its team and platform with added support from within the state.
Haley Medved-Kendrick, senior managing director of investment accelerators at gener8tor, said Feedcoyote’s growth reflects both a founder-led understanding of customer needs and the company’s ability to build a product users genuinely want.
“Stevens has a real discipline around product-led growth, building something people want to use and letting that drive the business rather than forcing it,” said Medved-Kendrick. “FeedCoyote is exactly the kind of company Alabama’s startup ecosystem should be getting behind, and I’m glad to see Innovate Alabama backing him.”
“FeedCoyote is exactly the kind of company Alabama’s startup ecosystem should be getting behind, and I’m glad to see Innovate Alabama backing him.”
For Dr. Bonhomme, the goal remains consistent with where the idea started: freelancers should not have to figure everything out on their own. Feedcoyote is one effort to change that, built from lived experience and growing through community as it continues to scale from Alabama. In many ways, it is a full-circle moment, building a company in the same ecosystem that helped shape his path.
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