Plants Map Wins $10,000 at Made in Fred VA Competition

The second annual Made in Fred VA startup competition crowned its winner Wednesday, Nov. 19. After a busy day pitching his business ideas to area entrepreneurs, Plants Map owner Bill Blevins won the $10,000 prize.

Plants Map is a social media platform targeted toward gardeners. Blevins hopes the business will become an online inventory where gardening enthusiasts can organize and share their collections.

Currently, 600 individuals and 53 organizations are using the site, which has 5,000 registered plants.

Plants Map was one of five businesses to make it to the final round in the competition, which was modeled after the popular ABC show “Shark Tank.” Each finalist was given five minutes to pitch their idea to four local judges and then had 10 minutes to answer questions.

A $500 people’s choice award was given to Annie Tremper from Eternity Blooms, a company that aims to make plant bulbs using ashes from loved ones.

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