Elevate
Venture Asheville grows Asheville, North Carolina's startup community and connects high-growth entrepreneurs to talent, mentors and investors through unique programming and events. They measure progress in terms of high-growth ventures created, seed and venture capital invested and high-salary jobs generated.
In 2015 Venture Asheville formalized its mentorship program to bring organization, a playbook, and support to its nascent entrepreneurial community. They attended the MIT VMS Immersion Program in August 2015, followed by annual onsite Mentor Training programs with MIT VMS instructors to orientate their growing mentor pool.
Leveraging the high number of talented and retired executives, who also desire to help diversify the Asheville tourism-heavy local economy, Venture Asheville has built an elite and flagship program for the highest potential startups in the area. Currently, Elevate startups have created nearly 415 jobs, raised over $60 million in investment dollars, and earned over $115 million in revenue. Most of these companies are in the CPG, tech, outdoor, and healthcare industries.
“Beer City Cup has hosted adult soccer tournaments in Asheville for nearly 15 years, with an economic impact bringing $3M into Asheville annually. We joined Elevate in 2023 with one annual tournament. With the help of our mentors and peers, we've expanded to 300 teams from over 60 cities and five countries. And our revenue has grown 107%! We couldn't have accomplished so much so fast without the help of our mentors and team at Venture Asheville.”
- David Turner & Eric Usher, Founders - Beer City Cup