Program Spotlight: Paladin Pitch

The 2023 Paladin Pitch, a highlight of The Hill Institute's year, is fast approaching. We encourage you to RSVP for this year's event, which will be part of Furman University's Campaign Launch Weekend celebrating the university's third century of continued higher education excellence.

You will hear from Furman’s newest generation of entrepreneurs and witness the winner take home the freshly minted $10,000 “Johnny Flynn Paladin Pitch Award!"

The Johnny Flynn Paladin Pitch Award is named in honor of Johnny Flynn ‘69, an entrepreneur who had numerous business enterprises including real estate home markets and apartment rentals in the Upstate of South Carolina. Johnny embodied the entrepreneurial spirit by dealing with the unknown and embracing innovation.

Click here to reserve a spot at the Paladin Pitch Competition happening on April 13th!

Where are they now?

As we look forward to this year's competition, we wanted to follow up with a couple of previous participants and applaud where they have landed. We truly are helping the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders successfully launch!

Paladin Pitch 2020

Trent Stubbs '20 won third place in the inaugural Paladin Pitch Competition for Aconabolics, LLC, a venture specializing in the synthesis of organic acids, ketoacids, and amino acids for pharmaceutical/materials research and metabolic analysis. Trent is now working full-time as the Co-CEO of Aconabolics and has received significant grant funding as well as a patent.

Paladin Pitch 2021

Brooke Dominiak '22 won the 2021 Paladin Pitch Competition for her business To Go Bros, an on-campus food delivery app. The work on her venture created pathways for strong leadership experiences such as becoming president of Furman's student entrepreneurship organization, working with the City of Greenville to receive local entrepreneurial resources, and ultimately, being recruited to Silicon Valley to work for Adobe.

Upcoming Events

February 28, 4:00-5:00 PM

Mini Pitch Competition for Furman students in collaboration with the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities.

March 1, 5:00-6:30 PM

GVL Starts Launch Party. Three GVL Starts graduates will be presented with a Hill Hustle Award for achieving milestones in their businesses.

March 30, 5:30-7:00 PM

GVL Starts Demo Day. Three $5,000 checks will be awarded to members of the current GVL Starts cohort.

April 13, 4:00-5:30 PM

Paladin Pitch Competition

June 5 - August 11

Summer Business & Innovation Boot Camp for Furman students. Provides students with three weeks of classroom learning followed by six-weeks of consulting experience.

Learn More

In The News

Experts hash out what entrepreneurial success means for Greenville at City Council 2023 Retreat

“Part of our specialty is that people want to be here. And so, how are [we] leveraging the entrepreneurial talent that wants to move here and be here to grow new ventures?” Bryan Davis said.

[The Hill Institute at Furman is proud to play a leading role in answering this question. Creating and implementing high-impact programs with community partners like NEXT, Village Launch, and Build Carolina allows us to capitalize on the ripe opportunities here in Greenville, SC.]

Other topics of discussion included creating space for remote work such as co-working spaces, building affordable houses that include secondary dwellings for home offices, and engaging the workforce, not just founders or co-founders of businesses.

Greenville Journal, January 2023

What is

The Hill Institute?

We help you LAUNCH. We not only help aspiring entrepreneurs and founders launch new ventures, but we develop the skillsets they need to be a successful entrepreneurial leader.