Startup The 2.0 Collective aims to break down silos in Charlotte with its annual event created to boost collaboration among professionals looking to advance their careers.
Charlotte-based The 2.0 Collective will hold its second annual Collective Drive week-long event from Jan. 21-25. The after-hours series was first held here last fall, when it revealed it was launching its first physical footprint in Charlotte.
Locations for Collective Drive will be revealed at a later date. It expects 1,000 people to attend, primarily those early in their careers or are in the process of transitioning careers. The event will offer access to coworking spaces, coworking groups for remote workers and connections to jump-start their ideas and career goals.
"We decided that we needed a way for people to experience what we were building and what we offer," said Anya Evans, head of growth at The 2.0 Collective. "But essentially, Collective Drive was a way for us to tap into Charlotte's untapped potential."
The 2.0 Collective, founded in 2020, is a software-as-a-service-startup that is working to disrupt traditional career coaching. It equips professionals with the resources to elevate their careers while maintaining a 9-to-5 or startup job. The startup achieves that with its software tool that matches individuals with career growth and networking opportunities based on each professional's preferences and values.
People interested in the service are required to subscribe to secure access to its resources. Memberships can be purchased in monthly packages at $275, in addition to other options. As part of the subscription, individuals are paired with a career strategist who can help with job transitions or hardships.
Evans said the Collective Drive is a reflection of the startup's mission. It was created primarily after The 2.0 Collective recognized networking or business groups in Charlotte can seem siloed, meaning startup and large corporation events are rarely in the same room, Evans said.
"It's not too often that we're all coming together and collaborating," she said. "So, we wanted to create a way that we could share our ideas, projects and culture in a way that was more holistic and more of a circular ecosystem."
The 2.0 Collective noticed after its first annual Collective Drive, the event created valuable collaborations between people who may have never connected otherwise. The startup hopes the event will provide more opportunities for siloes to be dismantled locally.
"If you want to build something here or start a community here, it's the perfect place," Evans said. "But people are busy building in silence and hustling in silence, so no one knows what it is they're building. We need to bring light to all of these things and give people the floor, and then also allow room for people to collaborate because we go farther when we work together."
