"Venture Asheville builds entrepreneurs and gets startups funded." That's been our driving value proposition for five years now, enacted through our flagship program Elevate.

If you're new to Venture Asheville, Elevate startups have earned over $100M in revenue, raised over $55M in capital, and created over 360 jobs at an average salary of $78K/year here in Asheville.  Core aspects of this success boil down to leveraging the MIT Venture Mentoring System, additional experiential requirements, the strong peer-cohort, and most important - focus. Elevate's focus is on high growth startup founders at the inflection points of their growth curve. That means not mature startups, not idea stage founders, but in between, the messy middle. 

We field many requests from entrepreneurs in more lifestyle, traditional/conventional businesses that don't qualify for Elevate based on stage or growth potential. But these entrepreneurial founders seek the same benefits, accountability, and access we offer. 

Similarly, successful ventures well into their maturity, or ones in between growth cycles, fall out of what Elevate is designed to support. These founders still need peers, professional development, accountability, and opportunities to lead.

We are excited to announce two new incubators based off Elevate's incubator model.

For businesses less than two years old at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce: Insight, the Venture Asheville Emerging Business Incubator - designed to support the professional development of entrepreneurs in lifestyle-oriented, community-driven, small scale, or traditional ventures.

For our maturing ventures: Inspire, the Venture Asheville Luminary Incubator - 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.

Source: Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce