The Fall 2018 Idea Accelerator cohort completed its eight-week program with a pitch competition in front of a distinguished panel of judges on November 12th. Spark Women, a company aimed at increasing female participation in the construction industry, walked away with the top prize of $5,000.

The teams pitching their business ideas spent the previous eight weeks refining their concepts and working on customer discovery, financial literacy, and investor readiness. Over 50 teams began the program which culminated in 6 teams pitching their ideas.

Conducted by the UGA Entrepreneurship Program with support from the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), the program is in its fourth year and 9th cohort. This program is the precursor to the Summer Launch Program which helps teams which validated a customer need during the Accelerator process get to revenue generation.

"The UGA Idea Accelerator is an integral component of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program" said Bob
Pinckney, Director of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program, "Participation from our partners Four Athens and ATDC along with the broader entrepreneurship community in Athens only makes the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem stronger. We are very excited to see several of our UGA Idea Accelerator alums continue growing their companies and creating real value in the community following graduation."

Kaitlin Lutz, a full time UGA student, is typical of many of the cohort participants. She began the program with a deep problem she was looking to solve and through customer discovery has created a company as the solution to this issue.

Kaitlin said, “I began the Idea Accelerator program with a completely different idea than the one with which I finished. The program taught me to fail small, fast, and without fear of change. It challenged me to make my dreams a reality instead of just talking about them.”

In total, the UGA Idea Accelerator and Summer Launch Program have given more than $100,000 to help student teams launch companies, including Summer 2018 winner bobchats and Spring 2018 winner AvantiCure. Other participants, such as Fee Favor and Reservoir, have gone on to generate significant
revenue, hire initial employees, and raise additional rounds of funding. Previous winners include Puppyfax, a platform for dog breeders, and the first cohort winner, Athens-based adventure sharing platform Vestigo.

The UGA Entrepreneurship Program is a campus-wide program open to UGA students of all majors. In
addition to the Summer Launch Program and UGA Idea Accelerator, the Entrepreneurship Program oversees the UGA Next Top Entrepreneur Pitch Competition, the Georgia Kick Start Fund, and the Collegiate Consensus Great Brands Show (formerly the Collegiate Next Great Consumer Brands Pitch Competition).

The UGA Entrepreneurship Program is housed in the Terry College of Business and facilitates the UGA
Certificate in Entrepreneurship at both the undergraduate and now graduate levels. New for fall 2018, the program introduces a Living Learning Community at Creswell Hall where incoming freshman live and connect with other entrepreneurial students and get an early start on their entrepreneurial journey.