2024 was an amazing year for The Platform at Greer, our economic development team’s entrepreneurial support initiative. Attendance for our events topped 1,000. Along with our partners at BlueInc Strategies, we hosted the 13th, 14th, and 15th Platform Bootcamp sessions designed to help startups innovate and grow. Collaboration among our graduates strengthened ties in our community. A hurricane left devastation in its wake but also brought out the best in people.

2024 marked the formation of Greer Moves, a non-profit that has awarded a financial boost to three Bootcamp graduate companies so far: Big Play in a Box, CAIRS Shoes, and GrowScripts (Performance Enhanced Delivery). The Greer Moves selection committee has picked the next grant recipient from among the most recent pool of applicants. We hope to announce the winner in January.

We plan to meet with a group of stakeholders in early 2025 to set the stage for the year. After that meeting, we will put out our 2025 event schedule. We are likely changing the cadence of IGNITE Greer in the new year to resolve a monthly scheduling conflict among community partners. We’ll keep you posted on that as well as what we’re thinking for our monthly Huddles and Bootcamps in 2025.

We’re ending the year with gratitude for our entrepreneurs, volunteer coaches and judges, and the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in the upstate dubbed #StartupGVL. Here’s to an even better year in 2025!