Yes that is right, three years ago we (NEW) had our first event for entrepreneurs and investors at Ironclad Brewery.

On May 29th, we will have Ironclad beer and Wake n Bake Doughnuts to celebrate, honor our partnership with Bunker Labs and have a marketing seminar.

Please register now.

While I am very proud that we have the second highest attendance of any entrepreneur council in North Carolina behind only CED of Raleigh/Durham that has been around for 32 years, there is still more work to do.

Among our biggest accomplishments of NEW include:

1. Bringing international startup investor Paul Singh and the Results Junkies Tour for his only multiday stay in North Carolina.
2. Helping Polly Harman and her Pursuit Sleep Technologies meet investor Cindy Whitehead who made an investment
3. Our State of the Startup event last February 2017 had 240 people registered. That was a MASSIVE crowd for a beach town in the winter.
4. We have hosted over 45 out of town investors to speak and meet with local entrepreneurs and SOME HAVE INVESTED. Yes they have.
5. The Wilmington Angels for Local Entrepreneurs (WALE) have made 8 investments since October of 2015 and four of them are military veteran founded startups. Most of you only know that we invested in Petrics, but we have made many more deals.

One of our biggest challenges is to get the startups to increase the awareness of their products outside of New Hanover county. nCino and Untappd/NextGlass are very good at this, but of course they have more resources too.

I have invited three regional and local marketing experts to give you some tips to move your business forward.

Speakers include:

Scott Sorensen – The Compete Agency – Scott is a recent newcomer to North Carolina. Compete Agency works with a small budget to allow three agencies to work on social media traffic for your business. The winning agency gets the contract due to their performance in helping you attract clients. https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottyso/

Jenna Curry – Wilmington Today Magazine / Remedy Digital Agency

Stephen Bon – Bon’s Eye Marketing

Did you read my OpED in the recent Wilmington Business Journal? https://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/entrepreneurs/2018/05/04/sound_off_fledgling_firms_need_fuel_to_grow/17439

A BIG Thank you to our sponsors like Adam Shay CPA ( http://adamshaycpa.com/ ), Justin Wolfe of Strategic Investments ( https://strategicinvestmentsnc.com/our-team/ ) , Live Oak Bank, the Cohen family, the Fisher Family Foundation and of course Ironclad Brewery,

Other events in the region include:

May 23rd- Wilmington Business Journal Coastal Entrepreneur Awards.
http://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/eventDetails?eventID=114

June 5th – Cape Fear Economic Development Council – ( I am a speaker)
https://capefearedc.org/events/the-moonshot-growing-the-traded-sector-to-make-wilmington-a-world-class-region/

Deadline: Apply to present your startup at the largest venture capital conference in South
http://www.icontact-archive.com/iNvgdK-Oc7SMhu82nI3ZBhr6XyKuJp2I?w=1

Did you see this article about the top 5 startups in Wilmington?
http://thetechtribune.com/5-best-tech-startups-in-wilmington/

Check us out on Facebook! (https://www.facebook.com/NEWilm/ ) and Twitter ( @redspireUSNC ) or for Bunker Labs –https://www.facebook.com/BunkerLabsRDU/ and @BunkerLabsRDU