“It’s like bootcamp for businesses,” he explains. “It’s a very high impact thing.” The Greenville program, known as The Next Big Thing, is a member of the super successful TechStars Network, a series of 12week “startup accelerators” located in 22 cities around the world, including 10 in the US. Many entrepreneurs apply, but only about 10 are accepted to each location. “The process is more selective than getting in to the Ivy League,” says Barth. The spots are highly coveted because the program gives fresh entrepreneurs everything they need to turn an idea into a viable business or product in a very short amount of time, including $6,000 per team member (with a maximum of $18,000), free office space at the NEXT Innovation Center, and 12 intense weeks with skilled mentors. Scheduled for summer of 2012, the program’s development is already in full swing as Barth and upwards of 20 mentors prepare for what may be one of the biggest impacts the Upstate has ever seen in the technology sector.
Kristian Andersen, an angel investor and CEO based part-time in Arkansas and part-time in Indiana, describes the team Barth has assembled as an “all-star cast” of mentors. “I’m on the junior varsity squad,” jokes Andersen, who says he signed up to be a mentor for two reasons—to help young entrepreneurs and to scout new investment opportunities.
The process is more selective than getting in to the Ivy League. - Peter Barth
When TechStars began in Boulder, Colorado back in 2007, Clemson graduates Josh Fraser and Rob Johnson were part of the first class. The college roommates applied for TechStars, pitching their innovative idea for creating a service that developed online communities for conferences to enhance networking among attendees.The idea landed them one of the exclusive TechStar spots, so Fraser and Johnson left the Upstate and headed west for the chance to rub elbows with successful CEO’s and investors. “We didn’t know a whole lot of people [in the Upstate] in the tech industry. We didn’t know other engineers. We didn’t have mentors around that had started a successful tech company,” says Fraser. But with TechStars they had all that and more. With the help of the program, Fraser and Johnson secured thousands in startup capital for their company EventVue. “You’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose,” Fraser says about TechStars. But despite Tech Stars’ success rate, EventVue eventually failed. Fraser and Johnson were forced to shut it down in February of 2010—ultimately because, Fraser says, they were selling a product that wasn’t necessary. “When you have something people want but don’t need they’re not willing to pay that much for it,” he says. Still, the entrepreneur lived on, and Fraser recently launched a new company called Torbit, which makes websites faster. But those encounters with both success and failure are lessons Fraser is excited to pass on to fledgling entrepreneurs as a mentor for The Next Big Thing.
While the lessons entrepreneurs need to learn to reach success aren’t taught in a classroom, these innovative business people are the ones driving growth and economic development in America, according to Andersen. “The vast majority of new job growth comes from startups,” he says. “The Next Big Thing is playing a critical role in helping that industry mature.” Knowing the impact startups can have on the economy is what makes local business owners like Frank Greer so excited about the creation of a program like this right in the Upstate. According to Q3 2011
Business Black Box
Mentors, Barth says, are a key component of The Next Big Thing. He’s secured 12 national mentors that will come to Greenville for one week. These big names include Brad Feld, a TechStars founder and one of the top angel investors in the country as well as Lloyd Taylor, the former director of global operations for Google.
“Mentors aren’t paid,” he says. “They just help, but in return for that help they get an early look at these promising companies and, if they’re so inclined, they have the opportunity to invest.” Andersen sees entrepreneurship as an “apprenticeship profession,” like brick masons or blacksmiths of the past. “There were certainly a number of people that came alongside of me early in my career, with no promise if remuneration, that took me under their wing and gave me a chance and taught me how to hire and fire people and raise money,” explains Andersen. “That’s something you can’t get out of a text book and you certainly don’t get out of an MBA program.”
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