Does a startup company need to leave Charlotte in order to get funded?
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(Note: This is a monthly startup series authored by Charlotte investor Greg Brown, the administrator of the Charlotte Angel Fund.)
No, it does not.
Founders who do a good to great job of building a company in an interesting market will have capital available to them.
The following Charlotte area companies agree with me.
AvidXchange – raised $225M of growth funding in 2015.
MapAnything – raised $7.3M of venture capital funding in 2015.
Passport– raised $8M of venture capital funding in 2016.
Payzer – raised $4.2M of venture capital funding in 2016.
RedVentures – raised $250M of growth funding in 2015.
The 61 Charlotte area angel investors who invested over $12M of their personal funds in Charlotte-based companies over the past five years also agree with me.
The truth is that there is less early stage capital resident in Charlotte than there is in most cities of its size.
There is no venture capital firm that calls Charlotte home, and most of Charlotte’s high net worth individuals are much more comfortable with later stage investments than they are with investing in startups.
However, this should not deter a Charlotte-based entrepreneur from starting a business in the Queen City.
Investors live and die based upon deal flow. Finding high quality investment opportunities is difficult, and investors will stretch their geographic boundaries for a good to great company.
Charlotte-based entrepreneurs will have to be creative and diligent in order to win mindshare from investors who typically focus on other geographies, but it absolutely can be done and we have the examples above to prove the point.
What investors won’t do is go out of their way for a mediocre opportunity. But founders, you aren’t building something mediocre, are you?
Who is presenting to Charlotte Angel Fund in September?
Our lineup of presenters this month is as follows:
Design Trade Service
This Texas-based company has developed an online marketplace that connects interior designers with furniture manufacturers. This marketplace allows individual designers to access better product and pricing than they are otherwise able to acquire.
iScribes
This Durham-based company offers a solution which reduces the time and money involved with medical documentation. Its mobile application, initially targeting the orthopedics market, connects physicians with trained medical scribes who prepare patient visit notes in real time.
Tenant Turner
Tenant Turner is a Y Combinator alumnus that has developed a software solution that helps landlords reduce vacancy. This Virginia-based company vets and scores tenant leads and schedules viewings with the property manager or self-access lockbox.