Inspire, the Venture Asheville Luminary Incubator, is an initiative designed to support and empower the leaders and experts significantly advancing the startup ecosystem in the Asheville area through their ventures, leadership, and community stewardship.
Qualifying members are
- Founders, Co-Founders, or C-Level Staff of mature startups
- Graduates of Elevate or invited to participate by Venture Asheville Staff
- In good standing with Asheville Chamber membership
- Commitment to growing the ecosystem through some level of sponsorship
What is a Luminary Incubator?
Numerous Elevate alumni and mentors voiced a need for a post-Elevate program that focused on professional development, community, peer-mentorship, and accountability. Some explicitly asked for an Elevate 2.0 containing our most advanced and leading startup founders who are beyond the inital growth curve of their business life-cycle. Hence this initiative, which follows a similar methodology to Elevate, but suited for this affinity group of entrepreneurs.
The term “Luminary Incubator” suggests an incubation program or initiative that specifically focuses on nurturing and supporting individuals who are already established as luminaries or highly accomplished figures in their respective fields.
The concept of a luminary incubator implies an exclusive program that aims to harness the potential and drive of accomplished individuals, fostering collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the cultivation of groundbreaking ideas within a community of exceptional talent. Futhermore, our staff believes the future of our region will be most greatly impacted by these inidivudals. They offer so much already, but have yet to live into their full potential.
Our Luminary Incubator provides a specialized environment and resources tailored to the needs of experienced founders, helping them further develop their ideas, projects, or ventures. It includes peer-mentorship, expert-led workshops, networking opportunities, and other support to facilitate continued growth and innovation.
Format
Inspire will follow a format very similar to Venture Asheville’s successful Elevate mentorship-based incubator including:
- Monthly peer mentorship workshops led by industry experts, professional speakers, authors, and each other
- Complete experience portfolios
- Track their entrepreneurial growth using theE13.com
- Track quarterly venture metrics
Ventures are accepted on a quarterly basis.
For more information on Inspire or to request a meeting to learn more about participation, please contact Jeffrey Kaplan at jkaplan@ventureasheville.com
Meet the Participants of Inspire, the Venture Asheville Luminary Incubator
