Creating Momentum for Carolinas’ Diverse Startup Founders

Learn the best ways to impress investors, accelerators, and pitch competition producers, and increase your likelihood of getting selected.

Roughly just 1% of venture-backed founders are black, 9% are women, and 2% are latino. There is a massive gap and we want to change that by spending time assisting you craft your story and make your applications for funding opportunities standout.

Goodie Nation’s goal through Creating Momentum is to help you drive the most impact by capturing the audience’s attention, building meaningful relationships with investors and securing funding opportunities.

Goodie Nation is calling for all diverse founders in the Carolinas to join for an interactive session to learn about:

• The mindset investors, accelerators, and pitch competition organizers are looking for when selecting startups
• Examples of how good founders describe their startup’s opportunity, winning applications, etc.
• General information on Venture Atlanta such as application deadline, things they look for, etc.

Speakers:

• Jason Caplain: Jason is a General Partner and Co-Founder of Bull City Venture Partners. Prior to co-founding BCVP, Jason co-founded Southern Capitol Ventures. Previously, he was at Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) in their finance group through the successful IPO in 1999. Before joining Red Hat, Jason was at Harrison Hurley and Company, an investment banking and business-consulting firm headquartered in Providence, RI. He currently serves on the board at Spiffy and is a board observer at Circonus, Levitate, ServiceTrade and ReverbNation. He is also on the board of Venture Atlanta and on the Investment Advisory Board for the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) consistently the most active seed investor in Virginia.
• Jessica Mitsch: Jessica is the co-founder and CEO of Momentum, a talent transformation company focused on the technology workforce. Jessica is an HR and code school thought leader, and 2021 Women in Business award-winner in the NC Triangle region. A recnogized leader and spokesperson on tech education, Jessica is a regular guest on local and national TV outlets, has spoken at SXSW and other high-profile conferences and events, and contributed to White House initiatives to expand access to tech education. She has recently been recognized as in Durham Magazine’s “The Influencer” issue and in the Triangle Business Journal’s 40under40.
• Tim Scales: Tim Scales is director of growth at the American Underground, a startup hub and community of entrepreneurs in Durham, NC. Previously, he founded a successful marketing agency and an unsuccessful tech startup, and learned a lot from both opportunities.
• Johnny Hackett: Johnny is the founder of The Black Dollar Corp., a retail location and online directory. The directory gives Black entrepreneurs opportunities to gain exposure and customers. He is also runs Black Friday Market, which has 90 Black-owned vendors and hosts community events. He was recently named one of the Triangle Business Journal’s “40 Under 40.” His background is in information technology, and he’s worked for Xerox, IBM, and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Moderated By: Venture Atlanta’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee