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March 08, 2021 | Tom Ballard

Pepperdine invites Tennessee start-ups to apply to its “Most Fundable Companies” program

We were contacted last week by Amy Wood, Program Manager at Pepperdine University’s Peate Institute for Entrepreneurship with a request to make start-ups in our coverage area aware of the institution’s “Most Fundable Companies” program.

“Last year we reached over 4,500 companies from all 50 states and for 2021 aim to provide even more founders with objective feedback to determine their attractiveness to potential investors,” she wrote in an email. “Past list winners from 2018-2020 have collectively raised more than $67M since publication.”

We asked about past Tennessee participation, and Wood responded as follows: “In fact in 2018, our first year of the program, we had one TN company named to our list, Beyond Brands Group from Memphis. And, that same year we had one company designated as Highly Promising, which was 490 BioTech out of Knoxville.”

The program is described this way on its webpage: “The ‘Most Fundable Companies’ program is not limited to Pepperdine student and alumni start-ups and is not a pitch competition. Get objective feedback on how your business will be viewed by potential investors beyond your introductory pitch.” Twenty companies are selected each year, and the deadline to submit information is March 31.


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