Op-Ed: The real story behind the Charlotte startup scene

There are places to start your startup

Since 2013, Charlotte has tripled its number of coworking spaces. Today, entrepreneurs can turn to spaces such as Industry, Advent, Hygge, Packard Place (newly partnered with HQ), and Level, to set up a professional space in a creative environment. And for help getting your startup off the ground and running, Charlotte is home to healthy incubators programs like QC Fintech, City Startup Labs, RevTech Labs and Ventureprise. 

There is local support for startups

Charlotte heavy hitter Red Ventures raised $250M last year from SilverLake in order to accelerate growth and in return, increases their support to the startup community. They were a key partner for Startup Grind Charlotte’s December event where the Chicago-based winning startup is owned by a Charlotte resident and Duke graduate. In the last 12 months alone Red Ventures has invested over $330M into companies including Imagitas, Ampush and Coursehorse. 

Winners of a February 2015 Edison Nation/Enventys event presented by SierraMaya360 and Startup Grind, local startup BrewPublik has also recently seen rapid growth while being selected as a current participant into the highly selective Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups Batch 16.

These two highlighted Startup Grind events alone drew over 200 company applicants from all over the world, demonstrating that entrepreneurs are attracted to Charlotte for the supportive community, financial cost of living benefits, great weather and the overall quality of life; it’s a short matter of time before Charlotte’s startup growth breaks through.

Moreover, on April 1, Charlotte’s SportsTank event focused on sports and tech startups had over 250 applicants from four different continents. It was the best event I’ve ever participated in, due in large part to the strong panels of investors along with sports advisors the likes of NBA and NFL executives, Charlotte’s very own Chrystal Rowe from the Panthers, and metro-Charlotte resident Pete Philo from the TPGsportsgroup.

I spoke with these startup founders, along with the investors who came from cities as far spread as LA, NYC, Boston, Seattle, Toronto, Dallas, and Austin among others. They all said they loved Charlotte and that this top shelf event was a premier opportunity for our entrepreneurial community. Because the press has not chosen to focus on this successful example, unless you were in attendance you would have needed to follow #sportstank on Twitter to grasp the energy the event generated. 

There is momentum right now

SierraMaya360 has been working on solving this issue because we believe getting venture capital money into the startup ecosystem will follow us since we have a global presence. In addition to discussing solutions with the Charlotte Chamber to help entrepreneurs gain more access – not just to capital, but access to the movers and shakers – to help their companies be successful, we have been working closely with the Charlotte Chamber to educate them on the latest trends. Don’t be surprised to see a Drone Racing League event coming to Charlotte or an Esports Team coming here later this year. 

If you don’t know what Esports is, it’s the fastest growing  sport in the world where brands are lining up to be involved. This June, tune in to Atlanta’s Eleague on Turner. For comparison, in 2013 more people watched the League of Legends world championship than the MLB World Series, NCAA Final Four, NBA Finals Game 7 and the BCS National Championship. These numbers continue to grow tremendously year over year.

Photo by Sam Churchill via Flickr (Creative Commons)

I guess when I see all of this positive momentum, from AvidExchange buying the naming rights to the NC Music Factory and raising $10M additional last month, to the growth of Red Ventures, to the MapAnything $7.3M round or DealCloud and recent rounds closed by AddShoppers, Just Push Pay all between $2-5M range to numerous others that fly under the radar, I think people need to start embracing Charlotte’s startup community and work together as “One.” Put politics or personal agendas aside – and as the Panthers say #KeepPounding!