The Graves Business Plan Competition is a dynamic, two-category pitch competition that offers student entrepreneurs hands-on experience twice a year at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Organized by the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the Haslam College of Business, the spring 2025 competition showcased a diverse range of student-led businesses from various colleges across campus. Competing entrepreneurs presented their ventures to a panel of seasoned judges, vying for funding and recognition.
Growth Category Startup Winners
The competition’s growth category features three prize levels for startups seeking large investment with high scalability.
First place and $5,000 in this category was awarded to Asters, founded by Aniirudh Ramesh, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering from Chennai, India. Asters is building smarter, more adaptive virtual environments that move beyond traditional simulations to elevate emergency preparedness and homeland security training.
“Winning the Graves Business Plan Competition is truly a great honor and an important milestone for our company,” said Ramesh. “This provides validation for our business model along with financial support to accelerate our vision of building a truly innovative product and achieving hockey-stick growth.”
Asters was recently selected as one of six startups in the University of Chicago’s AI Transform Cohort 4, which includes a $25K investment, $325K in compute credits and mentorship from the UChicago ecosystem.
Second place and $3,000 went to SoulThread, co-founded by Venkat Gopu and Arshita Sharma, both M.S. in computer science students from Hyderabad and Chandigarh, India, respectively. SoulThread is an AI-powered platform designed to help therapists simplify administrative work, prepare for sessions and stay connected with clients through an intelligent companion.
“Winning this competition validates the real-world need we’re solving,” said Gopu. “It’s an incredible boost for SoulThread and shows that tech-driven mental health tools have a future.”
Third place and $2,000 was awarded to Fastlain, founded by Grant Cline, a junior management major from Walnut Creek, California. Fastlain instantly analyzes and summarizes real estate documents, transforming them into clear, organized insights that agents can easily share.
“Seeing how much time agents spend buried in documents, I built Fastlain to make their lives easier and help them win more business,” said Cline.
Lifestyle Category Startup Winners
The competition’s lifestyle category features three prize levels and is for startups targeted to support local or smaller-scale opportunities.
The category’s first place and $5,000 prize were awarded to Pink Apron, a specialty food distribution company co-founded by Grant Coggin, a senior chemical engineering major and business management minor from Farragut, Tennessee. Pink Apron delivers fresh, high-quality pastries to coffee shops and events, making it effortless for clients to offer top-tier offerings.
“We’re thrilled to win the Graves competition,” said Coggin. “This achievement boosts our confidence as we expand into new markets, and it accelerates our growth with the support and recognition it brings.”
Second place and $3,000 in the category went to Gainz Mastery, a 12-week fitness program designed to help young adults improve their body composition. It was founded by Jawan Qura, a senior human resources management and entrepreneurship major from Knoxville.
“Winning the Graves Business Plan Competition is a huge milestone for Gainz Mastery, validating my vision to help people transform their bodies and confidence,” said Qura. “This win fuels my passion to grow the business and make a real impact in the fitness industry.”
The lifestyle category’s third place and $2,000 prize were awarded to A-List Accessories, co-founded by Nima Aref, a junior information sciences major from Franklin, Tennessee, and Harrison Gillespie, a junior marketing major from Arlington Heights, Illinois. A-List Accessories creates unique, pop culture-inspired planters made from eco-friendly materials to bring personality and sustainability to modern home decor.
“Winning the Graves Business Plan Competition is a game-changer for us, providing the resources and validation we need to scale our business,” said Aref and Gillespie. “We are extremely grateful to the Anderson Center for this opportunity, and we believe this is exactly what we needed to take our business to the next level.”
Celebrating Excellence in Entrepreneurship
At this semester’s awards ceremony, the Anderson Center presented a special prize, with the University of Tennessee Entrepreneurs Club (UTEC) awarding $1,000 to the top pitch from a UTEC member. Elijah Raffel, a senior computer engineering major from Memphis, was the recipient of this award. He founded Helping Hand, an AI-powered platform that improves patient understanding, enhances education and reduces hospital readmission rates.
According to Breanna Hale, executive director of the Anderson Center, what makes the Graves Business Plan Competition special is the courage and commitment to innovation displayed by the participants.
“Every year, the quality of the entrepreneurs and their business concepts continues to impress us,” Hale said. “Judging such a diverse range of ideas is no easy task, but each one was thoughtfully outlined and passionately presented. It’s truly inspiring to see these students take the leap — sharing ideas they deeply believe in, knowing that most people never take that step.”
About the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, housed in Haslam, is the front door to entrepreneurship at UT, connecting entrepreneurs and innovators at every stage with the resources, networks and expertise needed to solve real challenges. By cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset across campus, connecting entrepreneurs with resources and mentorship they need to grow and collaborating with the UT and regional ecosystem, the Anderson Center is developing an entrepreneurial culture where Volunteers are empowered to identify unmet needs and take bold action to create value through new ventures.
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CONTACT:
Morgan Lounds, marketing and events coordinator, mlounds@vols.utk.edu
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