NextGEN

In one week, we’re bringing you a hands-on workshop that dives deep into startup valuation, led by VentureSouth's Matt Dunbar! Perfect for early-stage founders and investors, this session with NextGEN will be interactive, educational, and packed with insights from one of the Southeast’s top angel investors. ??? November 22, 2024 ?? 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM ?? Next Innovation Center, Greenville, SC ??? Free Don’t miss out on this opportunity to strengthen your knowledge of startup valuation—reserve your spot today! https://lnkd.in/esXtenR9

Were you impressed by the Female Founder Panel at Next Venture Summit and wanted more? Or, were you sad that you couldn't make it? Here's your chance to connect with one of the speakers, multi-time founder & author Dar'shun Kendrick, and ask her all your burning questions! https://lnkd.in/eXWY458q

Today is my 2 year Work-iversary!! I can't believe it's been two years since I joined NextGEN, the time has truly flown by. Some highlights from the program side of NextGEN Year 2: * We rebranded from NEXT to NextGEN (Greenville Entrepreneur Network) expanding our aperture to encompass a wider array of high growth, high scale businesses. * We revamped our VMS Program to bring greater value to our mentors and our mentees. We added in mentee meetings this year, we brought on board two new Lead Mentors (Bruce Braun and Sharon Kelley), we hired Sam English to devote more time and resources to this program and we won a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to keep this momentum moving forward in partnership with Venture Asheville. We are just getting started with this dream team (Bruce/Sharon/Sam/Jeff) for our VMS Program. * We launched our Entreprenuer-in-Residence program with our Relentless Challenge grant. We brought on Gary M. Shiffman as our first EIR earlier this year and later in the year brought on Heather Hudson. These two are rockstars, brilliant, talented and moving our founders forward. * We launched our Office Hours program with Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLP and quickly added VentureSouth, EY, BizTrek Inc. and GruffyGoat. We are on track to hit over 40 meetings this year. This is free help for entrepreneurs from experts in our community! * We ramped up our workshop program to host 6 workshops this year (5 down...1 to go) on Founder Mental Health, 2 Hubspot Workshops, 2 Investment/Capital Workshops and a StoryBrand Workshop. * We revamped our Accelerator Program, brought on Cohort 3, changed our cadence to add in time for founders to apply what they learned, we paired them with coaches, we added in more hands-on content and they pitched on stage at Next Venture Summit. We ate a lot of food, we laughed a lot and we worked on our pitch decks over and over and over again with the help of Gary M. Shiffman, Daniel Jeffords, Mark Johnson and Shaler Houser. * We brought back Investor Match Day for year 2! We assembled a selection committee, we created 175 investor/startup pairings, we had a little extra time so we created one-pagers for all of our founders that we shared with investors and we truly knocked this one out of the ball park! * We met so many new founders, we made so many connections, we strengthened our relationships and collaborated more with our partners, we started leveraging our networks more to create a bigger impact for founders. We went to so many events, attended a countless number of happy hours, we cheered people on, we laughed and celebrated wins and we offered encouraging words in times of loss. We opened our doors to founders and the U.S. Small Business Administration in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. * And on a fun note, I was recognized on GSA Business Report's 2024 Women of Influence list! We did SO MUCH and I can't wait to see what's next in YEAR 3! ?? #StartupGVL #workiversary