Hill Hustle Awards Celebrate GVL Starts Graduates’ Milestones
The Hill Hustle Awards celebrate GVL Starts graduates as they hit key development milestones like opening a storefront, hitting revenue targets, closing a funding round and more. Bryan Davis, Executive Director of the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, explained that awards are given to entrepreneurs who “dig in and do what it takes” to accomplish their goals.
HILL HUSTLE AWARD WINNERS
- Jennifer K. Spears, The African Violet – Jennifer launched her crowdfund campaign to help support the final steps to launch her mobile tea bar.
- Anthony Maboko & Chantae Wardlaw, Mochinut – Anthony and Chantae recently opened their brick-and-mortar storefront featuring delicious donuts made from rice flour.
- Bill Sparling, Spar Solutions Unlimited – Bill celebrated $300K in revenue in 2022 and shared projections for an even more successful 2023
GVL Starts is an eight-week entrepreneurial support program led by the Hill Institute that helps innovators transform their dreams into action. Created through a partnership between the City of Greenville, Greenville Local Development Corporation (GLDC), South Carolina Department of Commerce and the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), GVL Starts connects its participants with like-minded entrepreneurs and experts to learn how to grow their ventures through transformational coursework in subject areas like creating a business plan, pitching business concepts, securing funding and more.
The event also showcased the partnerships in StartupGVL’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. SCRA gave two local startups their own reasons to celebrate, with Investment Manager Steve Johnson awarding $550,000 in BIG checks to support the scale of TestedHQ and CarbonCents-Inc. VillageLaunch Program Director Jeannette Brewster presented Jennifer K. Spears with her Hill Hustle Award and shared how she connected Jennifer with GVL Starts after she graduated from VillageLaunch’s Business Entrepreneur Academy.
The celebrations continue with GVL Starts Demo Day on Thursday, March 30. The current GVL Starts cohort (over 25 local founders) will make their pitch for a chance to win one of three $5,000 checks. The media and general public are invited to join and vote for what could be Greenville’s next big venture. RSVP at furman.edu.
Courtney Ashley
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Courtney Ashley
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