NC IDEA announced last month that The Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship would receive a $50,000 Regional Impact Grant to help scale existing programs at Davidson College.
Hurt Hub Director Liz Brigham said the grant will help solidify partnerships with First Turn Innovations and Launch LKN and help support the expansion of the organization's mentorship, Gig-Hub and seed capital programs.
"The mission of NC IDEA's focus on building and supporting the extension of the entrepreneurial ecosystem across the state is well-aligned with what we were proposing in the grant — mentorship, access to capital and access to talent, as well as our focus on taking action to help underrepresented founders," Brigham said.
The funds, Brigham said, will be used in three specific ways:
- Mentorship: $20,000 will be put toward subsidizing a part-time staff position to oversee the recruitment of mentors from more diverse backgrounds and underrepresented founders; developing, launching and maintaining a mentor database to better match mentees based on expertise needed and to keep better records for reporting; hosting monthly mentor meetings and other events to drive engagement and awareness; and collecting and analyzing data and qualitative feedback to improve the program.
- The Gig-Hub Impact Fund: $20,000 will go into the program that offers Davidson students the opportunity to work for startups and small businesses. Of that amount, $10,000 will be allocated for pro-bono Gig-Hub consulting work for women and minority-owned businesses through the Tech Impact Fund, established in 2015 by 2008 Davidson alum Whitney A. White. The other $10,000 will support scaling the administration and operations of the Gig-Hub program.
- Seed Funding: $10,000 will go toward the organization's 'Try It Fund', which gives microgrants to support activities like prototyping in the First Turn Innovations facility, market research, testing and launch support at the Hurt Hub. At least $5,000 of that will be reserved for underrepresented founders.
"We’re really excited, with the validation of our ecosystem, to be able to represent the greater Charlotte and Piedmont regions," Brigham said. "We’ll do everything we can to steward those funds and drive economic development in the region."
