The University of Georgia and the Athens community create a vibrant hub for entrepreneurship, where students and alumni alike turn passions into thriving ventures.

Business ownership is becoming popular — a 2023 study from Square found that over half of Gen-Z is considering starting their own business.

Young creatives like Kate Walsh, curating fashion for college women, and Bella Duddy, crafting custom game-day banners, showcase student innovation, while alumni like Melissa Ripley, owner of the boutique Fab’rik, bring seasoned expertise to the local business scene.

With a shared culture of ambition, collaboration and resourcefulness, Athens fosters opportunities that make it a hotspot for new ideas and successful enterprises.

 Why It’s Newsworthy: By exploring how students and residents in Athens succeed with their businesses, this story highlights the shared opportunities and challenges of building and maintaining businesses in a vibrant college town. This piece is locally relevant, showcasing local Athens businesses, while also inspiring others through stories of creativity and resilience. 

Bella Duddy, Commissioned Artist

Bella Duddy was born to be an artist. And while an elementary school teacher of hers once doubted her success, this only motivated her further. 

While her painting business soared when reaching a new UGA audience, Duddy’s journey began long before she arrived in Athens. Growing up, she was told that she would never have a successful career in art, and that she should put her eggs in a more stable basket. However, she took it upon herself to prove her teacher wrong. 

“I remember in sixth grade when my teacher would always yell at me for doodling in my book instead of doing the math problems on the board, telling me, ‘I’ll never have a passion in art,’” she said.

This only fueled her fire.

“And really from then, whether it was out of encouragement from my family or proving my teacher wrong, I really took initiative to grow my passion and my skill set,” Duddy said. 

Now, marketing student and budding entrepreneur, Bella Duddy has transformed her lifelong passion into a thriving small business. 

One project led to another, and Duddy is now known around campus for her commissioned art pieces. She specializes in creating custom football banners for tailgates, bringing Georgia’s game-day spirit to life with each and every brushstroke. 

“As a student, combining my talents and my business has been such a unique experience,” she said. 

Kate Walsh, Owner of Katie Bop

For Kate Walsh, college life involves more than class projects and game days — she also has to make time for Katie Bop, her online fashion boutique with over 28,000 Instagram followers.

Walsh, a senior studying economics at the University of Georgia, first launched Katie Bop in the summer of 2021. She started the business after visiting AmericasMart Atlanta, a wholesale market, with her mom. While there, she met women her age who owned their own boutiques. Feeling inspired, she invested her savings from consignment app sales to start her own. 

“I just felt a calling to jump in with both feet, and it’s my biggest blessing,” Walsh said

Katie Bop’s target demographic is college-aged women, which Walsh feels is essential to its success here in Athens. She rents a local warehouse space to store inventory for online orders and in-person pop-up events.

Walsh launched an iPhone app this past July for shoppers, and plans to expand her pop-ups by collaborating with local Athens businesses this upcoming Spring.

Melissa and Corey Ripley, Owners of Fab’rik Athens and Clarke’s Collective

Melissa Ripley’s story as the owner of Fab’rik Athens is the epitome of right place, right time. Having been manager for five years after graduating from UGA, Ripley found herself in a position to complete her dream of owning her own boutique.

“I interviewed and got hired to be the manager of the Athens location. So I was involved from the very beginning, which was really cool … then five years into managing, I bought the store from the previous owner,” said Melissa. 

Corey Ripley, owner of Clarke’s Collective and four other bars and restaurants in Athens, has seemed to master his own niche in the Athens bar scene. With over 70 bars in Athens it’s a wonder that any owner is able to stand out. Ripley attributes his success to the upscale atmosphere he and his team aim to maintain at Clarke’s Collective.

“Honestly, we’re just cleaner. We try and make sure that our establishment is clean, pretty, and our cocktails are higher quality than a lot of the competition,” said Corey. “My wife enjoys my bar, and she makes sure I’m clean and at a higher standard than the rest.” 

Widspread Impact of Local Businesses

Athens has become a hub for post-grad University of Georgia students starting businesses. The UGA Alumni Association releases an annual list, titled the Bulldog 100, that recognizes the 100 fastest-growing businesses owned and run by UGA graduates. Below is a visualization of 25 of those businesses that have been recognized in the past five years, all of which are located in Athens. Also included are fab’rik and Clarke’s Collective.