States Pride is a South Dakota company with the founding determination to showcase products and places that best represent the people and the land of each state - these are each 'State's Pride.' States Pride was founded by three South Dakota men - Kevin Brown and Brian Walton of Vermillion, and Greg Johnson of Tea. 'Our business is rural America.' We are more than an internet site. We are a small-town, main street company located in Vermillion, South Dakota that uses internet and non-internet means to help bring shoppers and travelers into rural America.

States Pride brings together computer technology with an understanding of small-town culture to provide marketing and business services to rural America. States Pride is positioned to be the 'first-in' nationally advertised market built exclusively to highlight each state's culturally authentic products and places. By allowing our members a retail presence on the internet, we are not only preserving but also creating jobs along America's backroads.

One of the pervasive problems facing rural America is that its people, places and products - from the California bed-n-breakfasts to the Vermont furniture maker - remain hidden. Rural America speaks with one voice in saying, "No one knows about us out here. We can make wonderful things, but no one comes to shop. We have wonderful places to see and experience, yet few travel off the beaten path and find us." Rural America's stated need for economic revitalization has given direction and purpose to our market development. We provide multiple marketing platforms in a fifty-state, interconnected, internet market. For producers and destination owners, our proprietary software allows each business to list itself, change its listing with no outside help and deal directly with the customer.

We are the only internet company to provide a national marketing strategy that generates significant market exposure for its members as well as offering those same members a retail return on their presence within States Pride. We will be the most powerful and affordable market within which rural Americans can be found.

We will not just be a web site among web sites - our broad scope of services and company abilities will allow us to fulfill the claim that 'our business is rural America.' States Pride is a fully tested, rural America market ready for full-scale promotion.

Our objective is to assist rural artisans, shopkeepers and proprietors in promoting themselves to a larger audience and provide state governments with efficient rural economic development tools. The site offers a custom-built catalog to sell products together with a directory listing of unique backroads destinations in each of the 50 states. It all begins here - one site, fifty state's best products and places.

In addition, States Pride is developing a deep-mapping mechanism that will enable travelers to plan trips to include routing and destinations. This will be an invaluable tool to encourage travelers to 'take the long way home and discover the cultural treasures along America's backroads.'