NCSU and SCV Launch Program to Showcase Local Companies

As we look to build up the entrepreneurial community here in NC, there are a couple of things I think about:

1. Recruiting more smart people here

2. Retaining more talent

#2 has really bothered me over the years.  It seems we are always trying to recruit an NC State, Duke or Carolina alum back to North Carolina. Now, they call places like Boston, New York, DC or the Valley home. They've settled, have kids, etc and pulling them back to North Carolina is a lot harder. The problem is that they never really looked at companies here in NC when they seeking their first job out of school. The awareness for college grads of local opportunities in the tech space seems to have been incredibly low.

So, to work on this, I have decided to try and make an attemp to fix it earlier. Here is one attempt at solving the problem. I would love to have feedback from Southeast VC readers on what you think or what other ideas you may have.

You may have read recently (here, here or here) that our firm partnered with NC State University to offer a program where we showcase some of the top technology companies in our region to a handpicked group of students in their Entrepreneurship Program.

As background, NCSU runs an annual trip to Silicon Valley (led by Tom Miller and Steve Walsh) where students meet execs at companies like Apple, Google and Facebook. They have been running the trip for 5 years. The students get real excited about the Valley which stimulates their interest in moving there. My thought is that as a VC firm here in North Carolina, we want to help build more awareness for the students of what is happening in their own backyard and hopefully, help retain more talent here in NC.

So working together with Tom Miller, Steve Walsh and Autumn Teal at NC State, we (NC State and Southern Capitol Ventures) launched an inagural event to help bring local entrepreneurs and execs together with top NC State students.

We ran the first event last Tuesday and will run it again on October 7. The goal was to mix in companies from different industries and size. Here is a list of companies that I invited to participate:

• Southern Capitol Ventures

• ChannelAdvisor

• Canvas On Demand

• Council for Entrepreneurial Development

• Cisco

• Cree

• eTix

• Hutchison Law Group

• iContact

• Inspire Pharmaceuticals

• ReverbNation

• SciQuest

• Square 1 Bank

Half of these met with students last Tuesday and the other half on Oct 7. The full day event focuses around driving to each company, meeting with the execs, learning about their success and if relevant what opportunities exist for NC State students when they graduate. It is a pretty packed schedule. Last week, we wrapped up the day at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development for a dinner for all the students and participating companies. It was a great way for them to informally network. Thanks to John Fogg and his firm Hutchison Law Group for picking up the tab for dinner.

I went around with the students during the day and the feedback was incredibly positive. There are definitely some things we will need to tweak, but this was a great experience for all the students and that's what this was all about.

My guess is that based on the immediate feedback we have received so far, we're highly likely to repeat this program with NC State. And as I think about expanding it further, maybe next time we can include Duke and Carolina students as well.

Comments

[Ted Smythe]

www.StartUpHire.com is a job board focused exclusively on VC backed comapnies. There are 200+ jobs within 50 miles of RTP. It is a great resource to identify VC backed companies and the VCs involved.

[Grace Ueng]

Jason - As a past visiting lecturer with the NCSU Engineering Entrepreneurship Program and having taught alumni of the program who went on to UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler MBA program, I know what you are doing is much needed - good job!

Very best,
Grace Ueng