A Big Day for Darden Student and Alumni Entrepreneurs
By Caroline Mackey
It was a milestone day for the Darden School of Business and University of Virginia entrepreneurial community as student founders took top honors on Thursday at the 2025 UVA Entrepreneurship Cup (E-Cup) and beyond.
Custis Coleman (MBA ’25) won first place and a $20,000 prize for his venture Land Credit, a SaaS platform that simplifies conservation tax credit sales.
Custis Coleman (MBA ’25) won first place.
Coleman was also a winner in the recent winter E-Cup Discovery Competition and a recipient of the Batten Innovation Grant, a program which create opportunities for Darden students to explore entrepreneurship by providing support to student-led, early-stage entrepreneurial projects.
The E-Cup is organized by the Foundry, a signature initiative of UVA Innovates. Darden’s Batten Institute is proud to have incubated and run the competition until this spring.
Danny Holloway (EMBA ’25) placed third for his recruiting platform TalentBeam. And Miles Lanham (i.Lab ’24, Engineering School) earned both second place and the Audience Choice Award for his venture Metopi, which is an early-stage MedTech startup developing a novel device to improve respiratory care.
Presented during the E-Cup finals event, the Kathryne Carr Award — a $25,000 grant honoring the late Kathy Carr’s legacy and recognizing i.Lab founders who embody her entrepreneurial spirit – was presented to the founder of The Clearly Collective, Olivia Cleary (UVA ’20, Architecture). The Award was presented by past recipient Jack Ross (Beanstalk), along with David Carr and the Batten Institute’s Jason Brewster.
Congratulations to these talented founders and all the students who participated in the 2024-2025 E-Cup Competition. The Batten Institute supports founders at Darden and beyond with resources, programming, venture funding and mentorship.
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (MBA, MSBA and Ph.D.) and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning programs offered by the Darden School Foundation set the stage for a lifetime of career advancement and impact. Darden’s top-ranked faculty, renowned for teaching excellence, inspires and shapes modern business leadership worldwide through research, thought leadership and business publishing. Darden has Grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C., area and a global community that includes 18,000 alumni in 90 countries. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Press Contact
Molly Mitchell
Senior Associate Director, Editorial and Media Relations
Darden School of Business
University of Virginia
MitchellM@darden.virginia.edu
