To date, we helped nearly 75 startups in Asheville, yielding >$100M in local revenue, 360 new jobs (well above average Buncombe wages), and raised >$50M. Elevate, our mentorship program guides startups through the inflection points of their growth curves in everything from risk management, fundraising, budgeting, user experience and design, marketing and communications, and long-term strategy. Our funding strategies include a Microgrant program, managing the Asheville Angels, and an annual Startup Road Trip, as well as establishing relationships with Venture Capital groups nation-wide to make sure our pipeline of startups can access the right capital at the right time.Outside our county, we help Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) with Pitch Training, identifying and collecting important ecosystem metrics (www.thee13.com), share our curriculum, and offer tools to measure the success of their programs and impact on entrepreneurs.

Parents have been setting up their grown-children on dates since the beginning of time, but it’s the only part of modern dating that hasn’t come online. Inspired by my mom, we are making a dating site for moms to meet with other moms to set up their adult-age kids on dates.

If you want a better future, you need to start building better entrepreneurs today. Based on nearly a decade of research and working with 2,000 entrepreneurs, Jeffrey Kaplan shares how they pioneered a new and unconventional way to build entrepreneurs. As Kaplan says, “The new story of our founders isn’t who is hustling the hardest. It’s about who is taking the steps of the journey."

Sponsored by The City of Asheville, Buncombe County, Self-Help Ventures Fund, Carolina Small Business, and Mountain BizWorks, the Mountain Community Capital Fund (MCCF) is aimed at providing debt financing (risk capital) to small business enterprises within the City of Asheville and Buncombe County to historically marginalized founders.As chair, I led fundraising from a seed amount of $450,000 to just over $3,000,000.

The North Carolina Board of Science, Technology & Innovation encourages, promotes, and supports scientific, engineering, and industrial research applications in North Carolina. Its mission is to improve the economic well‐being and quality of life of all North Carolinians through advancing science, technology, and innovation.The Board is focused on accelerating North Carolina's next generation of technology and technology companies. The Board also works with the North Carolina General Assembly and the Governor to put into place the infrastructure that keeps North Carolina on the cutting edge of science, technology and innovation.

Anthroware is an On-Demand Innovation Force made up of talented engineers, artists, and strategists. We solve problems for companies of all sizes creating high-impact digital solutions.As Product Owner/Consultant I work closely with our clients to create products that reduce waste and eliminate rework in beautiful software that people want to use. We use an innovative product development methodology that allows us to be industry and technology agnostic. Our projects range from complex websites with strong branding and marketing collateral, to large, HIPAA compliant web and mobile applications-- and everything in between.

Dogphrendly, the ultimate guide for where to eat, play, and stay with your best friend, finds your location and shows you nearby dog friendly venues. Featuring over 13,000 locations in all 50 states! Categories include: restaurants, hotels, stores, pet sitters, beaches, and parks. Over 15,000 users, and ~70,000 product review video views.

Bringing the technology of Identity Verification and Exam Integrity to a campus near you (or far from you because it's probably an online course).

Program Associate:Strategize and implement media and marketing for the center espousing values of entrepreneurship highlighting alumni, partners, and student achievements at the University of Florida. Additional responsibilities include coordinating with the CEI team on special events such as The Big Idea Business Plan Competition, Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, and Entrepreneurship Experience in South Africa.Head TA:Principles of Entrepreneurship undergraduate course managing 40 teaching assistants and nearly 1,500 students across face-to-face and online LMS. Monitors online forums, holds office hours, and advises students.

Created original social, educational, and religious programs for 8,000 Jewish students at the University of Florida. Design social media strategy and managed all Social Networks. Supervised Israel Fellow in programming, advocacy, and professional development and grant writing. Mentored and advised 12 student interns in the areas of PR and programming. Represented the UF Hillel on the Campus Multi-Faith Cooperative under the Multi-Cultural Diversity Affairs office at the University of Florida.

At IU I was fully supported in my studies based on two grants concerning new media and education. The research I led there under the supervision of Dr. Hickey, Dr. Danish, and Dr. Peppler encouraged the use of Twitter in rural secondary classrooms to teach canonical literary text.

Created curriculum and taught for 7th and 8th grade media course utilizing the iLife Suite on Apple Computers.