Wilmington entrepreneurs to spotlight growth at second annual 910 Day
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington entrepreneurs are preparing to gather for the second annual 910 Day, a celebration of local business leaders and innovators that organizers say reflects the city’s growing role as a hub for startups.
The event is hosted by the Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington (NEW), which is marking its 10th year of supporting early-stage companies. Founder Jim Roberts said the organization focuses on helping technology and biotech startups that create higher-paying jobs and new opportunities for graduates of UNC Wilmington.
“Graduates will be able to stick around and have a much higher-paying job than what’s traditional in the Wilmington economy being more tourism and service related,” Roberts said.
Wilmington’s startup community has drawn national attention in recent years. Both StartupBlink and Startup Genome ranked the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as the top in the world among smaller cities. Roberts credited much of that momentum to financial technology companies like Live Oak Bank, nCino and Apiture, along with Canopy, a $750 million venture capital fund based in the city.
He also noted the role of the UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which opened in 2013. Roberts served as its first executive director, and the incubator was recognized within a year as one of the nation’s top 50 facilities for entrepreneurs.
“The building of the formal ecosystem is really about listening to the entrepreneurs and what their needs are around capital or talent, or do they need a certain kind of patent lawyer,” Roberts said. “You provide them with those introductions and they flourish from there.”
This year’s 910 Day will profile three Wilmington-based entrepreneurs that Roberts described as “very exciting companies” likely to make an impact over the next five to 10 years. The event will also feature keynote speaker Micheal Burt, a Nashville-based business coach who has appeared at major events such as Grant Cardone’s 10X Growth Conference in Las Vegas.
Roberts said Burt’s message is designed to help entrepreneurs adopt the daily drive necessary to scale a company. “If you live at the coast, you tend to be a little more laid back,” Roberts said. “But that laid back doesn’t work with trying to scale a startup to a hundred employees and raising capital.”
Beyond networking and inspiration, Roberts said 910 Day serves as recognition for the role entrepreneurs have played in Wilmington’s economy. A recent survey ranked Wilmington among the fastest-growing cities in the country for both job growth and salary growth, only a few spots behind Raleigh.
“We’re trying to celebrate the success of Wilmington entrepreneurs,” Roberts said. “We don’t feel that there’s been a lot of recognition of really the impact on the growth of the Wilmington economy.”
The 910 Day event is scheduled for Sept. 10 in Wilmington.
