Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

If you want to see what’s coming down the pipeline in Knoxville’s startup scene, look no further than its student founders.

The Innov865 Alliance‘s 865 Fest returned Tuesday at Bridgewater Place in Knoxville, bringing together the region’s founders, investors, executives and business leaders for a full day of keynotes, panels and pitch competitions exploring how big ideas move from concept to reality.

Among the day’s highlights was the Emerging Entrepreneur Pitch Competition, presented by the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEI) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). Six student founders took the stage to pitch their ventures before a panel of judges:

• James Niblick, Resonant.
• Kaitlyn Daniels, Route 2 Farmstay and former Emerging Entrepreneur winner.
• Jeff Abbott, UTK.

Big Al’s Hot Mustard took home the check

Alex Del Vecchio presented Big Al’s Hot Mustard, a family-founded, additive-free sauce company built on the belief that healthy food should never be boring. Already a hit around Knoxville and UT’s campus, Big Al’s has generated more than $30,000 in Shopify sales over 16 months, and its online ads drew more than 100,000 views in a single month.

This is a brand. This isn’t just a business or limited to one product. This is 12 years in the making.

Del Vecchio hopes to expand into products like a low-calorie ranch and other dips. For now, he’s raising capital to move from a rental kitchen to a professional co-packer and position the brand for national retail, with potential test trials at Food City. This $3,000 win will help him do just that.

Give it up for the other founders

WarmWave

Kendra Mueller presented WarmWave, a wearable, app-controlled heat relief device for menstrual pain. Unlike disposable patches or stationary heating pads, the discreet, reusable device lets users stay on the move. The company is finalizing its provisional patent and developing its first functional prototype. Once finalized, Mueller is banking on a direct-to-consumer launch at $95 per unit.

The real cost is paid by women, including myself, having to miss work, class and moments that matter because menstrual pain relief was never designed to move with us.

Arbor AI

Patrick Ragozzine presented ArborAI, a legal research and case management platform for solo practitioners and small law firms. The platform delivers accurate, deterministic legal reasoning with a full audit trail, helping firms work faster and take on more cases without adding overhead. Arbor AI is starting with personal injury and real estate law to avoid model dilution and plans to launch as a subscription service at roughly $500 per month. Rather than replacing paralegals, the platform is designed to make them more productive and quality work more accessible to the people paralegals serve.

Right now, the quality of justice that you receive depends almost entirely on how much money you have.

JobWillow

Jack Ford and Alan Schneider presented JobWillow, a trust-based hiring platform tackling application spam and candidate ghosting in the entry-level job market. Instead of the typical one-sided hiring platform, JobWillow takes a two-sided approach. This keeps the business and the potential hire both accountable. Students are given limited applications each week to reinforce intent, and every application gets a guaranteed response in 14 days or it auto-declines.

Applying has become a numbers game. Employers are drowning in application spam and AI slop. But on the other side of that, college students truly seeking internships and entry level jobs are left ghosted even if they want to work. This fixes that cycle.

Edura

Joseph Shinkle of Tennessee Technological University presented Edura, an app built to streamline special education documentation for things like an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Shinkle, having a sibling with special needs, knew this industry well. From an early age, he learned to have great respect for special education teachers. But more often than not, he saw those teachers spending excessive time on paperwork and then getting burned out. The product is currently undergoing a data privacy review ahead of a classroom pilot in Putnam County. If all goes well, he looks to move into other Tennessee counties.

Teachers love teaching but hate paperwork. On average, teachers spend over 10 hours a week just on documentation alone. Edura lets special education teachers get back to what they do best.

Cofluence

Blake Hopkins presented Cofluence, an all-in-one influencer marketing platform that helps small and mid-sized businesses and smaller creators form safe, efficient paid partnerships. Hopkins drew on his own experience: despite having more than 130,000 followers across several channels, he struggled to land paid deals. There’s a lot of influencer marketing platforms out there, but Cofluence’s difference? Cofluence shares the normal statistics like engagement rate and likes, but also loops in accountability metrics like turnaround time and percentage of on-time delivery. The platform also gives creators more voice as well.

We are bringing two-way outreach to the market where creators can reach out to businesses, not just the other way around.

Building the next generation of founders

These emerging businesses and entrepreneurial talent wouldn’t be possible without organizations like the ACEI and their numerous programs that encourage these students to dream big, all while helping them navigate the nitty-gritty of starting a business.

To date, they’ve awarded $1.2 million to startups. So far this year, the center has reached 1,500 students, and 4,331 undergraduate and graduate students are set to take entrepreneurship courses during the 2026–27 school year.

This story will be updated with a link to a full 865 Fest recap shortly.

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