The Upstate has its own definition of what makes a business worth knowing. The years a founder put in. The quiet work nobody filmed. The hours spent before sunrise getting the doors open.
This year, ten of those founders will be named candidates for the 2026 Local Visionary Award.
The Local Visionary Award is the new editorial program from ThriveUp, the cinematic media company that operates UpstateWeekly along with city-level properties in Greenville, Simpsonville, and other markets across the region. The award honors independent founders whose work has shaped the communities they serve.
The candidate list will be announced at the end of May 2026.
The program runs across the full Upstate. Greenville, Simpsonville, Greer, Travelers Rest, Fountain Inn, Easley, Anderson, Spartanburg, and the smaller communities in between are all eligible. Selection is editorial. ThriveUp identifies candidates through original research, verifies the founder story, and chooses ten finalists based on the depth of the work and the role the business plays locally.
The award is built to reward the quality of the work and the strength of the story. Founders are considered based on what they have built and how they have built it.
Once the candidates are named, ThriveUp produces ten cinematic documentary episodes, one for each business. Each film runs between eight and twelve minutes. Each one is built around the founder’s voice. The films publish weekly across the ThriveUp network through the summer and fall.
At the end of the cycle, two winners are named.
The People’s Choice winner is selected by public vote across the ten finalists. Audiences across the Upstate watch the ten films and choose the founder whose story resonated most. The Editor’s Choice winner is selected independently by the ThriveUp editorial panel based on the criteria that define the award.
Both winners are added to the permanent national archive at LocalVisionary.com.
The cross-category structure is intentional. A coffee roaster from Travelers Rest, a restaurant owner from Fountain Inn, and a manufacturer from Spartanburg are eligible against each other. The criteria are about the founder. The Upstate is full of independent operators whose stories rarely make it onto camera. The award is structured to find them.
The 2026 cycle is the first. The Upstate is the launch market for the program. Candidates selected here will be the first names in the national archive at LocalVisionary.com, alongside winners from every market the network expands into in years to come.
For founders across the region, the path is straightforward. Keep building the business. ThriveUp editorial is researching candidates across the Upstate now. Selection happens on the strength of the story and the depth of the work.
The candidate list arrives at the end of May. The films begin shortly after.
The Upstate has its founders. The award puts their stories on the record.
Program details and the full candidate archive at LocalVisionary.com.