Now in its second year, the collaborative initiative pairs senior marketing students with deep-tech founders to deliver the real-world campaign assets and business best practices needed to help these young companies scale.
On Tuesday evening, business leaders, innovators and students gathered for a special edition of Innovation Crossroads. All semester long, a handful of Innovation Crossroads founders were paired with senior marketing students in the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business Marketing Department.
The concept is straightforward but high-impact. Students get hands-on experience developing an integrated marketing campaign for highly technical, real companies that these students can use as a portfolio project as they enter the workforce.
The founders receive market-ready assets that are critically needed at the startup stage, along with business fundamentals that many technically trained entrepreneurs have not had the opportunity to develop.