An app that helps incoming freshmen find roommates; products for mobility-impaired dogs; a golf cart taxi company similar to Uber; and a travel mug that can produce hot coffee in 90 seconds — these are just some of the proposals pitched by college students hoping to win big money for their new-business ideas.
Hosted by the University of Mississippi’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the annual “Servin’ the South” Collegiate Business Model Competition awards the nation’s best college-student innovators up to $10,000 toward their LLC or university foundation.
UM School of Business Administration graduate Steve Grantham, owner of eight Outback Steakhouse restaurants that serve the South, hopes his recent gift of $60,000 in support of the competition will help keep the ideas flowing and the contest going.
“I love seeing the new ideas. I always had an entrepreneurial spirit and it’s very exciting and interesting to me to see these young people have that same spirit: a desire to go out and build a business that coincides with what’s going on in their generation. They’re very, very smart,” said Grantham of Jackson, Mississippi, whose business, the J&R Restaurant Group, is an annual sponsor of the competition.
“When I attended Ole Miss, it was more about enjoying the college experience than it was about education. I wasn’t really focusing on the next step,” Grantham recalled. “But, through this program, these students are already pre-planning their future. They have this testing ground while they’re still in school to get their feet wet and understand how to put a business plan together and develop a product that’s new to market. I wish I’d had that opportunity when I was going to college there.”
Clay Dibrell, chair of Entrepreneurial Excellence, co-director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and professor of management, said he greatly appreciates Grantham’s gift as well as his involvement in the competition as a judge, his service on the CIE board of directors and his dedication to mentoring the student-entrepreneurs.
“We’re very fortunate to have an alumnus like Steve who sees the potential in our students and who’s excited about innovation and entrepreneurship,” Dibrell said. “He plays a very valuable role in the success of the Business Model Competition and in our program.”
Grantham said he enjoys helping student-entrepreneurs shape their ideas.
“I never thought I’d be in a position to give money and time back to the business school, and it’s equally rewarding to me to go up and talk to the young people and give them encouragement and advice about their ideas and what they’re going to need to consider as they plan a business,” Grantham said.
“It’s something that’s very valuable to them because they need that mentorship,” he continued. “They need someone to give them some oversight and guide them through the process of developing their own business.”
After graduating from Ole Miss, Grantham worked with his dad, the late Steve Grantham Sr., who owned three long-distance communication services. In 1989, he joined MCI, the predecessor to Verizon for 20 years. Meanwhile, Grantham Sr. became an early franchisee of Outback Steakhouse, which the donor took over when his father passed away in 2006.
“Something my dad always told me and it’s something I live my life by, ‘Give as much as you can as often as you can without ever expecting anything in return,’” Grantham said. “We’ve been very fortunate in our business and give back as much as we can.”
And that’s a lot: for example, in 2024 alone J&R Restaurant Group’s Bloomin’ is Boomin’ community-support program served over 11,500 meals at 47 events for $104,000 in food donation and $125,000 in non-food donations. Additionally, the group’s sponsorship donations totaled $100,000.
Bloomin’ is Boomin’ serves the Mississippi and Tennessee communities around its steakhouses by helping the local charities, associations, non-profits and educational groups obtain funding, support and meals. The events and sponsorships primarily help active-duty military personnel, veterans and law enforcement officers, first responders and their families, dog shelters, horse rescues, little leagues, wildlife outdoor groups and many more.
To have a greater reach, the J&R Restaurant Group has partnered with other big brands and organizations, including MSSP (Mississippi Scholastic Shooting Program), All American Youth, MadCAAP (Madison Countians Allied Against Poverty), Southern Unlimited Outdoors, Courage Worldwide, Catch a Dream Foundation, The Trail of Honor, Archery in Mississippi Schools (AIMS) and the Foundation for Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks.
For more information about supporting the “Servin’ the South” Collegiate Business Model Competition, contact Angela Brown, managing director of development, at browna@olemiss.edu or 662-915-2755.
By Bill Dabney/UM Foundation