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They call it random — chance, luck, even kismet. But sit down with young entrepreneurs James Carnes and Kyle Gillis about how they met, and another word comes to mind: inevitable. They met at a WVU networking event in 2019. A mutual friend introduced them. And something just … clicked.
They were both Industrial Engineering students at the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. They were both ambitious and driven. They’d both grown up in the Northern Panhandle, Carnes in Weirton and Gillis in Wheeling, and were no strangers to hard work.
They both respected each other as creators, and their shared passion for building led them to weekends spent tinkering on the Evansdale area of campus.
Weekend “build sessions,” which they spent discussing business ideas and problems, ultimately led them to the IgniteWV competition for entrepreneurs, where they won their first $10,000.
It turned out, the WVU ecosystem — a place both guys call “scrappy” and “down to earth” — was the perfect place to nurture their connection. A place where their diverse passions aligned and grew into a partnership able to weather all the ups and downs, twists and turns and late nights of growing their own business from early-stage startup to international success.
Today, they’re celebrating a new milestone. Iconic Air, their energy-tech company that builds proprietary software allowing industries like oil and gas to track and manage their emissions and operations in real time, has been acquired by ASUENE, a leading international sustainability AI company in Japan.
But what looked inevitable, in hindsight, was actually the product of two guys from the Mountain State who refused to give up. Students improvising as they went, learning to blend their approaches into something that would actually solve a real-world problem. Their first thought? Drones. Not software. Not emissions. Not yet.
They started with drones — built in their rooms and during long hours in the WVU Morris L. Hayhurst LaunchLab when most students were out with friends or scrolling their phones.
The first time that grit paid off, their business was still grounded in STEM education. They were creating kits and curriculum to help young students learn about engineering through drones. They called it ICONIC EDU, and it earned them their first taste of traction: a first-place win in a campus business plan competition. But they weren’t done evolving.
“We started as a drone STEM education company … then we were flying commercial drones to detect methane,” Carnes said.
After those early wins, the founders joke that they entered a bit of a wandering phase. These two are problem-solvers. They wanted to make a real mark in an industry that needed their particular skills.
“We oftentimes describe those early days as wandering through the wilderness,” Carnes said.
Gillis recalls the process of moving away from educational kits toward emissions monitoring as somewhat humbling. A U-turn in their thinking. And it wouldn’t be the only one.
“You’re talking to hundreds of people … and everything you just did goes out the window.”
Hundreds of conversations soon turned into a direction — like a clear note sang in the darkness. Companies didn’t really need drones. They needed a way to organize the reams of data they were already gathering. They were using outdated software and legacy platforms never meant to juggle the complexities they faced, from new regulations to shifting economics. They needed a way to organize it all, trust in it, report it accurately and act on it quickly.
“We realized no one was actually tracking or recording all this information,” Carnes said.
So they pivoted to software — and that was the turning point that transformed ICONIC EDU into Iconic Air.
All this couldn’t have happened in a vacuum. It happened in Morgantown — at whiteboards crowded with messy notes in the LaunchLab, conversations in the Mountainlair and, later, at Vantage Ventures, the WVU-affiliated accelerator and co-working hub supporting West Virginia startups.
Vantage Ventures gave them structure, space, a coffee machine and — perhaps most importantly — a community of other minds and passions growing big things in Mountain State soil. It was one more practice stage. More late nights. More rewrites. More white-knuckled belief in themselves. Unknowingly, these two became part of a wave of WVU-connected founders testing what a modern startup in West Virginia could be.
Their vision attracted support not just from WVU affiliates, but from West Virginia investors, too. The Country Roads Angel Network jumped at the chance to back Iconic Air. They recognized the grit and determination of its founders.
As CRAN board chair Kevin Combs said in a recent interview, their success “validates West Virginia’s growing startup ecosystem” and shows that bold founders here “can scale solutions that matter on a global stage.”
The bet paid off. In 2025, Iconic Air was acquired by ASUENE, a sustainability leader based in Tokyo. The Iconic team is now a business unit of ASUENE and will help lead the company’s U.S. footprint. In Morgantown. Right where it all started.
“They bought our entire company to be the platform for their U.S. expansion,” Carnes said.
Even as they build their global wave, the guys are investing back into the communities that shaped them. Carnes now runs BeaconWV, a nonprofit supporting entrepreneurs across the state — giving other founders the kind of practical support and encouragement they received.
“We actually work a lot harder than people think,” Carnes said, reflecting on West Virginia founders going head-to-head with Ivy-League-centered networks. His meaning? They make it look easy from the outside. But inside? Behind the scenes? These two are used to the slog. They aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves. “Resilience matters,” he said.
For Gillis, too, that message resonates. West Virginians don’t lack talent — they sometimes just need someone to prove the path exists.
“WVU planted seeds of this mindset,” Gillis said. “Exposure and encouragement matter.”
From STEM education to tracking emissions for global players in the energy field to shedding light on the path for others. Carnes and Gillis went from being students who clicked, whose minds met and recognized each other despite their differences, into a power duo now shaping the future of startups in the state. It means something bigger is happening here, in these hills and hollers.
And it looks like that wandering path these two unknowingly cut through the wilderness is about to have a whole new ensemble of brilliant minds stepping through, blinking into the light.
