Anderson Center announces winners of Graves Business Plan competition
After seven pitch competitions at the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Blake Hopkins' "Partnerly" wins in the "Growth" category.
Twice a year, the Graves Business Plan Competition offers a unique opportunity for student entrepreneurs to pitch their start-up ideas and gain invaluable real-world experience. Hosted by the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the Haslam College of Business, the Fall 2024 competition showcased a variety of innovative businesses founded by undergraduate and graduate students from across the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) campus. A panel of expert judges listened to the pitches and awarded prizes to the most promising start-ups.
Growth Category
The Growth Category of the competition recognizes start-ups with the potential for significant scalability and large investments.
The top prize of $5,000 was awarded to Partnerly, a business founded by Blake Hopkins. Hopkins is a senior at UTK who created Partnerly to address a personal challenge: finding paid partnerships for social media influencers. Partnerly aims to connect content creators with small businesses, streamlining the process of securing successful paid partnerships on social media.
“Winning Graves has always been a goal of mine, and it’s an honor to receive such an award,” said Hopkins. “The funding will go a long way to help Partnerly successfully launch.”
AluminAiry, and its founder Dr. Brian Washington took home $3,000 for second place. He is developing cutting-edge stationary and portable energy generation systems that use aluminum-air battery technology. These systems convert recycled aluminum and oxygen from the air into clean energy.
The third-place prize of $2,000 went to Student2Student Career Coaching, founded by Anna Chen. The business focuses on empowering students with affordable career coaching, offering guidance on resumes, interviews, and personal branding.
Lifestyle Category
The Lifestyle Category highlights start-ups focused on local and smaller-scale business opportunities.
MedSpa Growth Solution claimed the first-place prize and $5,000. Founded by Connor Langford, MedSpa Growth Solution is a digital marketing agency dedicated to helping Med Spas grow by filling their appointment calendars, increasing client retention, and enhancing online presence.
“Winning the Graves Business Plan Competition is a huge honor for MedSpa Growth Solution,” said Langford. “We’re excited to make an impact for businesses here in Knoxville and across the USA.”
Second place and $3,000 went to Pink Apron, a bakery service that delivers high-quality European-style pastries to local bakeries and events in Knoxville. The company is co-founded by Grant Coggin.
The third-place prize of $2,000 was awarded to ZNAKICKS, a sneaker industry-focused resale and education company founded by Zain Zitawi. ZNAKICKS was born out of Zitawi’s passion for sneakers and the sneaker resale market.
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