On September 22, over 300 guests converged at the Greenville ONE Center in downtown Greenville, SC for the 7th annual NEXT Venture Summit. Founders, funders, and ecosystem partners joined from across the Carolinas to celebrate the best and brightest startups in the region.
We kicked off the day with the Founders Sessions sponsored by Shumaker Law, an educational series featuring four dynamic discussions ranging from how design choices can impact a company’s growth to how the landscape of investing has changed and tips for navigating the realm of venture capital.
During the Afternoon Summit, our opening keynote featured success stories from the founding team of BetterCloud, while our closing keynote highlighted local entrepreneurial success story, Marty Osborn, and Advoco’s acquisition by Accenture.
And for the main event, we welcomed 30 investor judges to interview our 10 finalist startups on stage in 15-minute lightning rounds. These founders showcased their companies as they fielded tough, educational questions from some of the top minds in venture capital and entrepreneurship.
Hook Security was selected as the Judges’ Choice and will advance to the on-stage competition at Venture Atlanta in October.Hook Security uses its learning platform to train nontechnical users to recognize cybersecurity threats and attacks through humorous training experiences. (pictured above: Eric Weissmann, Executive Director of NEXT with Judge’s Choice winner Adam Anderson, Co-Founder/Chairman of Hook Security Co.)
Closing out the day, conference attendees enjoyed a rooftop afterparty, sponsored by GADC, at Avenue. It was a celebration of all the hardworking entrepreneurs, their supporters, and guests were treated to beautiful views of downtown Greenville. To those who joined us for this year’s events – thank you for being here. We’re proud to be conveners of a growing, vibrant startup community.
Be sure to save space on your calendar in September 2023- we’ll be back at it again – featuring even more startups, making even more connections, all building towards an even stronger ecosystem. We’re just getting started.
About NEXT Venture Summit
The NEXT Venture Summit is a one-day venture capital conference that brings together high-growth entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, world-class speakers, and more to establish Greenville as an innovation and entrepreneurship hub in the Southeast. In its seventh year, this event promises to deliver value to the entire #StartupGVL ecosystem and the surrounding region. For more information, visit nextventuresummit.com
About NEXT
NEXT is an entrepreneurial support organization that attracts and helps high-impact, knowledge-based companies grow by developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem and connecting entrepreneurs to it. NEXT currently supports more than 120 knowledge-based companies in Upstate South Carolina. For more information, visit www.nextgengvl.org.