Dawgtown Moving, a student-owned moving company with over 20 employees, took home $2,500 at the UGA Entrepreneurship Program’s Idea Accelerator pitch contest.

The company, founded by criminal justice major Clay Proper and finance student Josh Sussman, launched in January 2023. Dawgtown Moving wowed the Idea Accelerator judges at the Oct. 3 pitch contest with its growing client list of more than 400 clients and productive cash flow.

Both Proper and Sussman got their start in high school working for BC Brothers Moving Co. in Savannah, a company that leveraged a network of movers who attended their high school.

The UGA Idea Accelerator is a four-week, intensive business workshop pairing UGA student startups with entrepreneurs who coach them in customer discovery, financial literacy and investor readiness.

While dozens of student startups started the Idea Accelerator process during the two cohorts hosted by the UGA Entrepreneurship Program this fall, only a handful pitch in front of judges. 

Judges for this pitch contest included Joe Tomco, founder of GlobalDevs, a tech headhunting and recruiting firm; Heather Jones, a Terry College Executive MBA alumna and COO of Civitas Capital; Kristen Dunning, a Terry College MBA alumna and founder of Gently Soap; and Salima Ali, a tech sales and communication professional.

In addition to Dawgtown Moving, the judges recognize DawgHousing, a roommate and housing matching app developed by UGA engineering graduate students Manuel Blaser and Muneeb Malik. DawgHousing also won UGA Entrepreneurship’s Summer Design Sprint in August.

Judges gave third place to Cards by Caroline, a custom stationery business run by fashion merchandising student Caroline Welcher.

In addition to the top three businesses, UGA master of public administration student and track athlete Erin McMeniman pitched RecoverAid, a subscription wellness box curated for recovering athletes. Finance and real estate major Atharva Sadarjoshi pitched the Spinge, a power tool for doing dishes; and real estate major Noah Voss pitched Vinerium, a marketing agency for the fitness industry.

The mission of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program is to help develop the mindset of future entrepreneurs and prepare students for business leadership roles. UGA Entrepreneurship Program accelerators are open to UGA students and Athens communit