Last Thursday, December 6th, 65+ local entrepreneurs, community members, and business owners gathered at the American Legion in Blowing Rock for the Silicon Hollar Year End Community Celebration! The night started with open networking, drinks, pizza (Carolina Pizza Co.) and cookies (Appalachia Cookie Co.). Because of our awesome drink sponsors we had beer, cider, wine and mead flowing all night long! Thanks again to our monthly drink sponsors, Appalachian Mountain Brewery, Blowing Rock Brewing Co., Booneshine Brewing Co., & Lost Province Brewing Co.
Sam Glover, Co-Founder of Startup High Country opened us up with a quick overview of special guest speakers and by thanking our drink, food and raffle sponsors.
Christy Hemenway from Run Amok Mead took the floor to discuss her new business adventure coming soon to a mountain near you and a Mead Label Art Contest that is underway now! Learn more here. Everyone enjoyed sampling the Mead at this event as well!
Doc Hendley, Founder of Wine to Water (WTW) was next up to the floor to discuss the work his local nonprofit does worldwide to help provide clean drinking water for all. Doc explained several different ways to get involved and support the cause. An easy way to support the efforts of Wine to Water is to grab some food or drinks at Ransom in downtown Boone and support WTW through their cost-sharing efforts! Everyone enjoyed Wine to Water wine at the celebration as well!
Jeffrey Scott, Founder and Facilitator of Velocity Labs then took the floor to discuss his recent 12 week startup course and Cohort 1. With the recent NC IDEA grant funding Startup High Country received, there will be a Spring Velocity Labs course in 2019! Stay tuned for details!
Four startup businesses from Velocity Labs Cohort 1 pitched their business idea or venture to the room. Jeremy Bollman Co-Founder of Hatchet Coffee pitched first. Jeremy discussed problem solution fit along with customer discovery, validation and creation. Hatchet Coffee hopes to grow and expand into other markets in the future. Jeremy also said he learned more about company building and leadership development from the Velocity Labs 12-week course.
Next up was Courtney Baines, Executive Director of local nonprofit Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture (BRWIA). During the course, Courtney focused on the High Country Food Hub, a project of BRWIA. She was able to track significant customer growth in a year and has worked on new marketing initiatives to promote shopping and supporting local food and artisan products in the High Country.
Holly Denise, Founder of SilverBarre pitched next. She was able to find a good customer market for her education product here in the High Country. Holly pivoted and changed ideas several times throughout the 12-week course but is now ready to implement her first SilverBarre class.
The last pitch was from Brandon Hall, Co-Founder of ChurchLearn. His team discovered that churches need a volunteer workforce and software to train the volunteers. They have a huge target market and are already reaching out to churches all over the US.
Our last speaker of the night was special guest Thom Ruhe, President/CEO of NC IDEA. NC IDEA is a private foundation that has their own money and flexibility to take risks in the market. NC IDEA provides grants and programs to help and promote entrepreneurship and customer validation. He and his team are always trying to figure out ways to get people capable of entrepreneurial and critical thinking. Thom discussed how local entrepreneurs and companies are now competing with kids in other countries, therefore we have to show resilience. Ruhe said, “Not being able to think entrepreneurially is the new illiteracy.” We must try to redefine the ecosystem innovation.
Our team is grateful for the outstanding support and attendance at this event! Thanks for always supporting our entrepreneurial efforts here in the High Country. Stay tuned for information regarding our January Startup Social.
Cheers to 2019!
Check out these images below from David Rogers of Blowing Rock News.