Happy Valentine’s Day, you beautiful lovers of startups and Asheville! My heart is swelling! Not because I took down a plate of Nacho Daddy’s from Asheville Brewing Company solo to the dome last night, but because that Wells Fargo Wagon is a – coming down the street oh please let it be for me!
Wells Fargo’s Foundation Grant is matching the Asheville Impact Micro Grant for $5,000! If you’ve been holding out on this $200 tax-deductible donation, boy is this gonna tickle your fancy! Wells Fargo will match individual donations at $100 to make a full donation. So now you only donate $100 and Wells Fargo makes that $200 – becoming a full donation. How amazing is that?! I’m so moved I’m going to call Michael Andry at Wells Fargo Advisors to make a strategic investment in a responsible and conservative slow growth mutual fund. Donate now, in the registration you can select the Wells Fargo Matching option for $100. These are limited to just 50 donations, so get in there like swimwear before they are all gone! www.ventureasheville.com/microgrant.
If you donate this week, you are entered in a raffle to win a container of CharGrow Bio-Granules. It’s a soil amendment that’ll have you saying, “Amen to that!” Let me share some ad-copy with you: “Get back to your roots! Really! This spring, you can give your plants’ roots the thriving, living soil they need to be healthier, more productive and naturally disease resistant by adding the right biology. CharGrow’s BioGranules™ is probiotics for plants. BioGranules is a unique tool that can rejuvenate the biodiversity of soils and rebuild communities of essential organisms that were lost.” This product is enough product to start 150 seeds, re-pot about 50 plants or treat 100 square feet of garden.
Last week’s raffle was this beautiful vase from The Bright Angle and our winner is Stephanie Kissel! I promise it wasn’t rigged. We assigned a number to every donor from last week and picked a random one. Steph, holler at me to pick up your vase. I recommend doing this today so you can put some flowers in it before tomorrow. #VDAY
In other news:
- Tomorrow at 8 am at the Asheville Social Hall – join the previous winners of the competitive NC IDEA SEED and Micro Grant to learn tips, tactics, and tons of advice on how to win $50K. Free, but you need a ticket
- 2/20 – 9 am Pitch Breakfast, the redo. See Elite HRV, Burban, and ChurchLearn pitch to real investors. Learn from these wise and wealthy people. See what makes them tick and what ticks them off.
- 2/20 at 6 pm at the Asheville Chamber is the Intro to the Asheville Startup Sceneevent. We give you everything you need to dive into the startup ecosystem and thrive like the unique and majestic narwhal you are.
- 2/21 – Mentor to many startups Ursula Jorch is hosting a free strategy workshop at Focal Point.
- Ecobot is making waves. They just announced their new website www.ecobotapp.com today and announced that they began onboarding customers in an invitation-only, time-limited Early Access Program. The company is partnering with Early Access Program participants to shape the future direction and functionality of the Ecobot app. YOU SEE THIS?! That’s customer led design. That’s how you build the perfect product. Bravo, Lee and Jeremy!
That’s all I got for today. Let’s keep momentum up on the Micro Grant and use all the matching funds from Wells Fargo.
Later Gator,
Jeff
