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The story below is a preview from our November/December 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
The Advancement Foundation’s Gauntlet competition helps develop and launch small businesses right here in the region.
Roanoke is known for its trails and the star that provides its nickname. But if you’re part of the Virginia business community, what may stand out the most about the Roanoke Valley is that it hosts the largest business development contest in the state, the Gauntlet.
Run by The Advancement Foundation (TAF) in Vinton, the Gauntlet is well known to locals through those who take home the top prize at the end of each session, such as 2022’s winner, Natalie Hodge of Rudy Girl Media. She began a film studio with resources for local creators in downtown Martinsville.
A year later, she’s launching a local TV network out of a former bakery and storage space.
The Gauntlet is undoubtedly a major launching pad for its big winners, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s a crash course in running a business that teaches you everything from creating a business plan to finding funding as you get started. It’s a community of entrepreneurs going through the same things.
And though you don’t need to participate in the final Shark Tank-like competition to take the course, everyone who does receives a prize to help them grow their business.
In a common refrain of Gauntlet alums, Hodge speaks fondly of what she learned from other participants, “creative, innovative people in our broader community who are making a go of this … I think I learned almost as much from the other participants as I did those teaching the program.”
It’s part of what Annette Patterson, Executive Director of TAF and Gauntlet founder, calls “Stone Soup.” Business owners, sponsors, fellow participants, mentors and more contribute what they can, and the Gauntlet grows to nourish its students.
Another of Hodge’s favorite experiences? “Everyone who had a business related to food. There were some talented folks! I tasted some of the best treats!”
One of the contestants she’s likely referring to was Sabrina Ruth-Cooper of Bite Me Confections, who creates homemade marshmallow treats with creative flavors and playful names like “Slap Your Momma” and “Tickled Pink.”
A retired teacher, Ruth-Cooper began her business during a Franklin County salary freeze. The Gauntlet allowed her to transform her side hustle into a full-time job.
When someone tells her they don’t like marshmallows, she knows they’ve never had them homemade and are thinking of what you find in cocoa. “You should try them,” she says. “I think I can convert you.”
That salesmanship and her experience speaking in front of the toughest crowd (elementary school students) made her pitch to the judges her favorite part of the Gauntlet. She opened with a surprising promise using her confection names:
“Pucker Up, Buttercup” because you’re about to taste something that will “Knock You Naked.”
She won $3,000 in cash and $7,000 in in-kind prizes.
While the most recent iterations of the Gauntlet have begun with classes of over a hundred entrepreneurs across multiple localities, its inaugural class in 2015 was a group of 14 students.
One of the participants from that first year was Dorothy Owsley of Transitional Options for Women.
Owsley was in the beginning phases of creating her nonprofit when Patterson encouraged her to enter the then-fledgling business development course she was beginning.
Transitional Options for Women’s mission is to make it easier for formerly incarcerated women to reintegrate into society. Her prize was a Chamber of Commerce membership, which allowed her to continue expanding her network.
Owsley went on to open a facility to house recent release-ees. Karin Shelor, one of her Gauntlet classmates, managed the home until it shut down in 2019, a casualty of COVID.
But even without a building, Transitional Options for Women continues helping formerly incarcerated women transition through career opportunities, clothing and their network of helpful people.
Dustin Smith graduated from the Gauntlet’s second class in 2016.
He was renting space for his new business, Discount Computer Services, from the Hive, TAF’s co-working space in Downtown Vinton. His company had grown from working out of his house to a booth in the Hive to a private office there.
But he wasn’t sure what came next. Smith was in his late 20s and was looking for structure.
Smith doesn’t remember where he placed and didn’t end up using all his prizes, but to him, that wasn’t the point. “I got what I needed out of it, which was a business plan structure.”
He still consults that business plan when making decisions, and he recently opened a second location in Salem.
Want to learn more about the Gauntlet from other past participants like Teresa Lyons, Cindy Forbes, April Jones and Sarah Bidwell? Check out the latest issue, now on newsstands, or see it for free in our digital guide linked below!
The story above is a preview from our November/December 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
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