Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Jeremiah Vecchioni knows what it’s like to face major life transitions without a safety net.

That’s why he’s building one for others.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) student and founder of World’s Fair Furnishing has been busy this year. In addition to launching a company, Vecchioni has worked as the student assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Student Life, served as an ambassador for the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEI), and managed a full-scale dog-sitting business.

His latest venture, World’s Fair Furnishing, aims to help college students transition in and out of housing more easily by offering furniture rentals as an alternative to purchasing.

To understand why Vecchioni is so passionate about this idea, it’s important to understand his background.

Instability leads to resiliency

Vecchioni was born in Jefferson County and spent nearly two decades navigating challenging family situations. In middle school, he moved to Wisconsin through a kinship foster care arrangement.

Despite hardships at home, Vecchioni was a bright student who poured himself into his studies and formed deep relationships with his teachers.

“School was consistent for me. I could depend on the people there and felt like it was an escape,” he said.

When he turned 18, Vecchioni moved out of his kinship foster home and began supporting himself. He had saved thousands of dollars while working as a shift manager at the local Culver’s. On that salary, he paid for his own apartment, food, bills, and accounted for his own schedule. In the interim, he also had to stop attending high school.

“I’ll never forget my high school principal and favorite social studies teacher showing up at my new apartment door,” he said. “My principal gave me my first bookshelf for my new apartment, and my social studies teacher bought me a mattress. To this day, their kindness has impacted my life.”

Living alone at 18 proved difficult. His savings quickly ran out, and Vecchioni once again found himself searching for a place to call home.

Fortunately, circumstances with extended family members in Jefferson County had changed for the better. Being a young adult, versus a young teenager, was a much different situation, and they were able to welcome Vecchioni into their home.

It was also at that point when Vecchioni re-enrolled in high school.

“Everything in life happens for a reason,” he said. “I enrolled at Central High School, which is a flagship school, to finish my senior year. I applied to UT, got accepted, and received free tuition. That was life-changing for me.”

With a high school diploma in hand and Wisconsin in the rearview mirror, Vecchioni was ready to make the most of his college experience.

He initially enrolled in social studies education, inspired by the impact his former teacher had on his life.

“I wanted to be that for someone else,” he said. “I thought education was the only way to do it.”

But Vecchioni soon realized he could help people in other ways, perhaps even more impactful ones.

“The way I’ve had to live my life has made me a more business-minded person,” he said. “I’ve always made the best of any situation, and I know the same will be true of my career.”

That mindset led him to the Haslam College of Business and eventually to the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where he began exploring business ideas.

His uncle, who works at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital near the UT campus, helped spark the idea for World’s Fair Furnishing. During lunch one day, they discussed the amount of furniture waste seen around campus at the end of each school year. Couches were left on curbs, chairs discarded in dumpsters, and students spent hundreds of dollars on U-Hauls to move furniture across the country to start new careers.

Vecchioni saw an opportunity to serve students, promote sustainability, and build a scalable business.

Incubating his business at UTK

World’s Fair Furnishing aligns with Vecchioni’s core mission: helping people.

“I realized I’m passionate about helping others during transitional periods in their lives,” he said. “I can’t be connected to every single person at an intellectual level, but World’s Fair Furnishing is something that could serve them passively.”

The company will offer two tiers—rent or purchase—and is currently in the pre-market testing phase. Vecchioni has conducted student surveys and identified a test group of interested peers.

He plans to start small, using a storage unit to house inventory and scaling based on demand.

“It may just be a chair, or a table, or a couch, but at the end of the day, it’s one less thing these students will have to worry about,” he said.

Vecchioni has pitched his business plan at several student competitions, winning funding through ACEI’s Vol Court, the Graves Business Plan Competition, and participating in the Knoxville 865 Fest’s Emerging Entrepreneur Contest in September.

“It’s been incredible to watch his growth as both a student and an entrepreneur. His enthusiasm, coachability, work ethic, and genuine warmth make him someone you can’t help but root for,” said Breanna Hale, the Executive Director of the Anderson Center. “He’s deeply driven to learn, to build, and to create something that truly helps others, and that authenticity shines through in everything he does.”

Vecchioni also recently joined the Anderson Center’s ambassador program, helping spread the word about resources for entrepreneurs across campus.

World’s Fair Furnishing is just the beginning. Vecchioni sees it as a launch pad for something even bigger. He’s keeping an open mind about what the future holds.

“I’ve always been a hard worker,” he said. “Now I’m learning how to use that to help others.”

Connect with Jeremiah Vecchioni.

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