Well, GrittyWorks is evolving, as we expected, and the name evolves with it. We are so excited to have established a partnership with one the most successful accelerator models in the world, Village Capital. And, ta dah, our Asheville-based accelerator is Village Capital Appalachia! VilCapApp! Village CAppalAchia! Ha, fun with names, but we are Village Capital Appalachia. Together, we’ll accelerate a combined group of 15-20 innovators from Appalachia and beyond, that are tackling the big challenges of land-based economies around the globe, bringing them together with world-class mentors and investors, to help launch these successful seed stage businesses into even more successful early and later stage companies! We have a lovely downtown location and are also considering staging some of our co-working at a beautiful farm school just outside of town. Over the past three years, Village Capital has launched 15 programs in 6 countries, supporting over 250 entrepreneurs. Village Capital participants have raised over $20 million, created over 7,500 jobs and served over 4 million customers worldwide. Combining Village Capital’s proven track record with our traction in this region of nature-based networks and business development, our growing cluster of vibrant agrarian and nature-based businesses in WNC (we were recently recognized as having the best local food culture and the best networked shared use facility for food and natural products in the country) and the recent award of the Obama administration’s jobs accelerator grant, lots and lots of interest AND some verbal commitments from investors and philanthropic organizations, and we are on our way to launch in Summer 2013. It’s a good day in the mountains 🙂 How can you help? We are curating a list of at least 50 potential applicants for the accelerator, early stage businesses in the sectors of F’s and Energy 😉 with proven success and good prospects for growth, with investment capacity for $50,000 – $500,000 and up over the next two years. Also, please do pass along your recommendations for philanthropy and investment to support our launch. We’re raising about $200,000 ($125,000 for the Village Capital part and another $75,000 for developing supply chain infrastructure that will begin the foundation for a sustainable accelerator for Appalachia 🙂
