Grant Murray- Alumni Spotlight

1. When did you graduate from Gatton and what degree/s did you earn?

• 2021
• Accounting and Finance

2. What or who encouraged or pushed you to attend Gatton?

• Growing up in Kentucky being a big UK football and basketball fan was a big driver.

3. What is your favorite memory from being at Gatton?

• Meeting my wife, Maria

4. Tell us more about your current venture and what inspired you to start it:

• I was sitting in my car downtown a few years ago, furious because I couldn't figure out how to log into yet another parking app. Twenty minutes of frustration later, I almost just drove home.

  That's when it hit me - if I'm this annoyed, millions of other people are dealing with this every single day. And nobody's fixing it.

  Around the same time, I kept hearing from local business owners who couldn't reach the customers literally parking outside their doors. They were wasting money on digital ads that went nowhere while their actual customers walked right past.

  I realized we could fix both problems. That's why I started Proximity - to make parking actually work the way it should, and connect people to the local businesses around them. We're turning one of the most universally hated experiences into something that actually helps communities thrive.

5. Can you explain your product to us?

• Proximity makes parking simple, scan a QR code, pay, and you're done. No app downloads, no confusing setup. We use the parking experience to deliver proximity based ads from local businesses.

  For cities and parking operators, it's completely free. We handle everything, payments, permits, and violations, at zero cost to them.

  The way we do that is by connecting local businesses with customers at the moment they park. It works better than traditional advertising because you're reaching real people who are actually there, not bots scrolling feeds.

  Bottom line: parking becomes seamless for everyone, businesses get real foot traffic, and cities get modern infrastructure without the budget hit.

6. What is one aspect of Gatton that has helped you pursue this venture?

• Getting my first internship with a Gatton alum, Brad Zapp at Connetic Ventures. It made me realize entrepreneurship was my passion. Professors like Quint Tatro and Olivia Davis were big supporters and drivers for me to pursue that route.

7. What has the Gatton College and the University of Kentucky meant to you?

• Kentucky has always been my home, Gatton and UK were extensions of that. 

8. Do you have any career advice for recent graduates?

• You don’t have to know exactly what you want to do right away. Look at internships not just as a job opportunity, but a try out. Use them to find what you like and build skills and connections from them to point you in the right direction.

9. What is something that you think is special about Gatton?

• I think what makes Gatton special is how it brings together ambitious students who are genuinely motivated to push themselves academically, but also to collaborate and support each other. The environment feels less about competition and more about helping everyone reach their potential.