{"id":3774,"date":"2026-08-20T08:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/?p=3774"},"modified":"2026-10-20T18:22:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:22:25","slug":"where-connection-became-a-calling-babettes-six-nineteen-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/where-connection-became-a-calling-babettes-six-nineteen-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Connection Became a Calling: Babette\u2019s Six Nineteen Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"headshotBabette Jones knows how to bring people together. As an entrepreneur with philanthropic experience at Girl Scouts, Furman University and as the Senior Director for the Greenville Tech Foundation, she builds relationships that unite communities across backgrounds and experiences. That gift is at the heart of her growing beverage brand, Six Nineteen of 1865<\/a>. As the only African American beverage owner in Greenville and the Upstate, Babette is blazing a trail in an underserved area, especially for minority women, bringing something totally different to the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all about bringing people together from all walks of life to make our community a better place and our world a better and stronger place,\u201d Babette says. \u201cSix Nineteen is an entire movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2022 trip to Hilton Head with longtime friends unexpectedly shifted her path<\/a>. When one friend mixed a coconut rum drink, it instantly became a hit, even for strangers who discovered common ground over it that night. This was the first time she realized the drink could bring people together. After the group later lost their friend Jimmie unexpectedly, they reunited for his daughter\u2019s graduation celebration, where they served the drink again. Guests loved it, reinforcing that this drink had the potential to become something bigger.<\/p>\n

At this point, Babette applied for and was accepted into the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship\u2019s GVL Starts<\/a> 2023 program. With more than two decades of entrepreneurial experience, including owning an Allstate Insurance franchise since 2000, she entered GVL Starts eager to learn, grow and pursue a completely new venture. The program provided the platform she needed to share her ideas and connect with a community that propelled her forward.<\/p>\n

GVL Starts brings together entrepreneurs at every stage of business development for a transformative nine\u2011week journey. Through expert mentoring, hands-on training and investor connections, the program equips first-time founders with the tools and connections needed to launch and grow. Serving as a bridge between Furman and the community, it has helped more than 200 ventures launch and scale since 2021, helping many secure funding, make key hires and open their doors.<\/p>\n

For Babette, GVL Starts is more than just a program. It\u2019s a community. The Hill Institute opened doors to resources and an expansive network, linking participants with the City of Greenville, venture capitalists, investors and other innovators. Although she entered the program with a business plan already in place, she continued to build valuable relationships and learn from fellow entrepreneurs. She became both student and mentor, offering guidance to innovators who were just beginning to shape their ideas.<\/p>\n

Babette was chosen to pitch her startup at the Hill Institute\u2019s signature event, now known as the GVL Starts Venture Showcase, a pitch competition for current GVL Starts cohort members. Judges determined winners, and Babette won a $5,000 startup grant.<\/p>\n

For anyone considering GVL Starts, Babette notes the program\u2019s value. \u201cEverybody’s not going to make the stage, but everybody will be able to get something that they’ll be able to carry away that will make their business a much better platform,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The business has a bright future. Six Nineteen of 1865 is currently in 37 locations across South Carolina and recently launched their e-commerce store, now shipping to 44 states. She also created Six Nineteen of 1865 Foundation<\/a> to help emerging entrepreneurs, students in STEM and future legal professionals and philanthropists. Babette\u2019s starting work on phase two of the business, which will include not just our community, but the world.<\/p>\n

As she looks to the future, Babette carries with her the influence of the women and community who raised her. \u201cNurtured by two strong women, raised by a community,\u201d Babette reflects, \u201cand for that, I feel that I’m unstoppable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Babette Jones knows how to bring people together. As an entrepreneur with philanthropic experience at Girl Scouts, Furman University and as the Senior Director for the Greenville Tech Foundation, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":3775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-3774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-furman-innovation-lab","tag-furman-innovation-lab"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3774"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3781,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3774\/revisions\/3781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/innovation-entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}