Lawrence MacAlpine didn’t come to Tulsa to open a bakery. He came for community. A longtime cybersecurity contractor and vanlifer, he and his wife, Breanna, had spent years traveling whichever way the wind blew. He was looking for a place to put down roots when a friend texted him about Tulsa Remote.

Along the way, he was baking sourdough for friends and neighbors, a skill (and starter) passed down for generations. When they finally settled in Tulsa, Lawrence brought his sourdough to Gradient (then 36 Degrees North), for the simple pleasure of sharing a little joy. The response was immediate and persistent: Lawrence made a mean loaf.

Encouraged by friends and Gradient members, Lawrence launched a small sourdough subscription service. Word got around. Restaurants and grocers reached out. One even requested 100 loaves a day—a bit too much for their 600 sq ft home. But soon enough, Lawrence and Breanna found themselves prepping out of a commercial kitchen, selling at grocers, and joining the Tulsa Farmers Market, where they sold out daily. That momentum turned into a moment.

Downtown Tulsa Partnership offered a grant for a two-month pop-up. Around the same time, the MacAlpines had their first child. With barely two hours of sleep a night and a city hungry for sourdough, they had to decide—scale back or go all in? The lease was signed in May 2024, opening the doors to SLATE Sourdough that July, and they haven’t looked back.

Gradient was there the whole way. “It was my testing ground,” Lawrence says. Feedback from Gradient members helped shape the early business model. They found employees through the community. They connected with small business funding through Gradient. And perhaps most importantly, they found the courage to leap. “The energy here is like, ‘Go do it.’ People believe in you.”

“You have so many people willing to help you. Having such a supportive entity of humans really does keep the momentum going.”

Now, SLATE is rising. With six employees, a growing customer base, and plans to double the size of the kitchen, they’re launching a Kickstarter and exploring new offerings—from workshops to digital sourdough tools. Lawrence has already built apps for recipe planning and tracking artisan bakers across the US and he’s just getting started.

Time is precious, and no one knows that better than Gradient members Titan Intake—not only for clinics losing patients thanks to clumsy processing, but lives lost to late diagnoses. Outdated systems and slow specialty care are holding the healthcare system back. Titan Intake is here to fix that.

The company began when Jhonathan Vasquez, a healthcare enterprise content management expert, moved to Tulsa with Tulsa Remote. Introduced to Patrick Bruce, an OSU MBA student with a background in health IT, the two quickly formed a bromance. But also an idea. With classmate Rachel Brown rounding out the founding team, Titan Intake transformed an academic idea into a company with a mission to help 100 million people get quicker specialty care.

Titan’s platform uses a Large Language Model (LLM) to process raw medical records like a nurse, cutting out manual work and speeding up intake. By assessing medical urgency, the tool ensures patients get seen faster with the right information in the right hands.

Their journey took a big step forward when they entered a local business plan competition, where Gradient (then 36 Degrees North) CEO + President Devon Laney happened to be a judge. That win turned into a desk at the Incubator location and an entry point into Tulsa’s growing startup ecosystem.

From there, things have moved fast. Titan plugged into Gradient’s network of founders, mentors, and investors. One of their early backers spent nine months watching the team build from across the room before writing a check.

It wasn’t just capital—it was community. Being surrounded by other early-stage startups gave Titan Intake space to learn, collaborate, and stay in founder mode. The startup energy and shared ambition made Gradient more than just an office—it became part of the company’s DNA.

“Through Gradient, we connected with potential customers, received a $100K investment from i2E, garnered additional investments from TU and 46VC, and joined the ACT House accelerator.”

Now, Titan Intake is scaling. With new partnerships, including a major hospital in Seattle, and a new fundraising round in the works, the team sees Tulsa as a powerful launchpad. They’re excited to be a part of Gradient’s growth as a resource hub for B2B startups and a magnet for enterprise partners ready to work with companies like theirs.