Our Sponsors

ZinnStarter

ZinnStarter is one arm of Ray Zinn’s goal of exporting the positive aspects of Silicon Valley culture to the rest of America. By reaching students in university entrepreneurship programs, Zinn intends to impart his experience, encouragement, mentoring and perspective, as well as putting seed money into the pockets of the next Google, Apple, Ford, Walmart or AT&T.

Embody

Embody Inc. is pioneering the next generation in soft tissue healing with novel collagen-based biofabrication techniques and biologic products for tissue healing. Founded in 2014, the company continues to develop unique biomaterials providing healing solutions for challenging orthopedic procedures including foot and ankle, rotator cuff, and knee ligament.

Mitchell Law Firm

Founded in 2012 and located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, the Mitchell Law Firm provides strategic legal representation to entrepreneurs, investors, and businesses. With an emphasis on emerging growth companies and corporate transactions, our firm represents clients on all aspects of the corporate lifecycle – from initial start-up and organization to capital raising, contract negotiation, and through a sale or liquidating event. Working closely with clients to understand their goals and objectives, we use our expertise, experience, and network to help our clients start, grow, and succeed.   We have worked with many student entrepreneurs on a wide range of issues from entity creation, angel financing, institutional financing, and ultimate sale of the enterprise.

Willow Creek Partners

Willow Creek Partners is a vertically integrated real estate investment and management firm.  We acquire multi-family, both conventional and student housing, properties in markets where demographic trends and demand drivers can serve as predictors of future value creation.  Our team manages the full lifecycle of our investments- from acquisition through renovation and disposition.   We seek assets that provide attractive risk-adjusted returns and that are located primarily in secondary and tertiary markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.  Our headquarters are in Reston, VA with satellite offices in Raleigh, NC, Blacksburg, VA, and Radford, VA

BOTS

Located in Downtown Blacksburg under Top of the Stairs. Dine in, Carry out, or Cater your next event. 

Bottom of the Stairs opened in spring 2017. Our downstairs location is a family-friendly spot serving lunch, dinner and drinks with plenty of seating inside and outside, even upstairs on busy days.  Our menu consists of in house smoked meats(pork, chicken and brisket), burgers, fried catfish, vegetarian options(Veggie BBQ and Veggie Burgers), salads and great appetizers.  Come in with friends or family or have us cater your next event at your place or ours.

PK’s

A downtown favorite since 1992, PK’s is where friends and good times meet.

Now celebrating 29 years in Blacksburg, PK’s is a local favorite for delicious hot wings and pizza, burgers and many other menu options at a great price. We also offer a wide variety of beers on tap and in bottles, as well as premium liquors and wine.

You’ll find local residents, professionals and students from Virginia Tech all enjoying our pool tables and dart lanes, or watching a game on one of the 23 TVs mounted around the restaurant. So whether you want to catch your favorite team or hang out with your favorite people out back on our deck, PK’s has something for everyone. We can even host and cater your special occasions.

Steampunk

Steampunk is a positive Change Agent in the Federal IT contracting industry, integrating design-thinking with our five key capabilities:  Design & Strategy, Cybersecurity, Data Exploitation, DevSecOps, and Digital Platforms.  Through our Human-Centered delivery philosophy, Design Intelligence®️, we are fundamentally changing the expectations our clients have for true shared accountability in solving their toughest mission challenges.  As an employee-owned company, we invest in our employees to enable them to do the greatest work of their careers – while experiencing a bold, creative, and entrepreneurial culture!

SPX Corporation

SPX Corporation is a diversified, global supplier of infrastructure equipment with scalable growth platforms in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), and detection and measurement. With operations in 15 countries and more than $1 billion in annual revenue, we offer a wide array of highly engineered products with strong brands.

HVAC solutions offered by our businesses include cooling towers, residential and commercial boilers and comfort heating products. Our detection and measurement products encompass underground locators and inspection equipment, fare collection systems, communication technologies and specialty lighting.

Woods Rogers

From initial idea to opening bell—and every step in between—the Woods Rogers Emerging Growth Team has experience in handling the challenges start-up companies may face along the way. We know you need a legal team that understands where you are and where you want to go. We are the team that recognizes the pressures of the market and the innovation and initiative that brought you to this point. We work closely with emerging growth companies, as well as with angel investors and venture capital firms that help finance the entrepreneurial ecosystem.