Southeast Shoutouts | Wilmington, NC becoming a hotbed for entrepreneurs
The Source is kicking off the Start-up Pitch Accelerator Regional Competition in Miami, FL.
From Wilmington, NC:
What a difference a decade-plus can make.
As noted in this article from WilmingtonBiz, the coastal Carolina community is ranked #60 in the recent “Global Start-up Ecosystem Index” from StartupBlink. That’s just 15 spots behind Raleigh-Durham, NC, and 33 spots ahead of Charlotte, another Tar Heel highly ranked city.
In 2013, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina Wilmington was launched. It was first led by Jim Roberts, who later founded Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington (NEW) and Wilmington Angels for Local Entrepreneurs (WALE).
“It is important to find people who were entrepreneurs in the past who are trying to plug into and feel a sense of community. We want to welcome them, not just for business, but socially, which is an important piece of it,” Roberts said.
“Wilmington is becoming a model,” he added.
From Sarasota, FL:
PaceMate, the cardiac remote monitoring platform, has announced the appointment of JR Finkelmeier as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Finkelmeier joined PaceMate as Chief Commercial Officer in 2024, after years leading Philips’ multi-hundred-million-dollar ambulatory monitoring division. In his new role, he will lead the company through operational transformation in support of plans for significant commercial expansion. Finkelmeier succeeds founding CEO Tripp Higgins, who will become the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Founded 10 years ago, PaceMate acquired Medtronic’s PaceArt Optima™ system last year, adding nearly 1,000 more clinic locations and making it the only company that can fully convert and transfer the full spectrum of in-person and historical PaceArt patient data. The company now has more than 2 million patients under management.
From Miami, FL:
Four months ago, music executive Ted Lucas and venture capitalist Hilmon Sorey launched The Source, an organization dedicated to supporting Black, women, and underserved founders as they build and scale their start-ups.
Now, The Source is kicking off the Start-up Pitch Accelerator Regional Competition, known as SPARC South Florida. Early stage start-up founders will have the chance to pitch their innovations in front of a group of 50 venture capitalists and angel investors in July. Finalists will participate in a demo day and pitch event in August, before an ultimate winner is selected. That winner will move on to pitch at the Startup World Cup in San Francisco in October, where the winner will compete for $1 million in capital and strategic support.
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