20
21
May
2025
Innovate Charlotte x gWen present:

Seed the South Capital Summit 

Elevating The Southeast's Entrepreneurial Frontier

Capital
Content
Connections
Community

Location: The Casey by Beau Monde
1837 N Tryon St #102, Charlotte, NC 28206

Powering Regional Growth

Experience Seed the South, a vibrant 2-day capital summit in Charlotte, NC, reuniting entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem partners across the dynamic Southeast region.

What to Expect

Over 2 action-packed days, you will:

Pitch

Gearing up to fundraise? Amplify your venture in our high-powered Pitch Competition and Startup Showcase at Seed the South. Capture investor attention and forge connections to elevate your business.

Learn

From insightful panel discussions with diverse startup ecosystem partners to informative presentations from subject matter experts, you can be sure to learn a thing – or several – to level up your business, expand your skill set, and become a better leader. 

Connect

With hundreds of industry leaders in attendance, Seed the South offers opportunities to make meaningful connections and strategically expand your network. Engage in multiple dynamic networking sessions and gain insights from inspiring conversations over the course of two days.

Celebrate

Seed The South is a vibrant celebration of entrepreneurship in the Southeast! Experience the energy through engaging social events and our lively Founders & Funders Welcome Party. Join us in honoring the region's innovators while fostering connections and having fun.

Agenda

Day 1
Day 2
9:00 AM

Mindful Pitching – A Guided Meditation for Founders Pitching

Brooke Daniels, Founder & CEO, Holistic Hustler

9:15 AM

Doors Open // Startup Alley

10:00 AM

Summit Kickoff & Opening Remarks

Emcee: David Hunt, Founder, Framewrk
Juan Garzón, Managing Director, Innovate Charlotte
Sam Smith, Chief Revenue Officer, Virtual StrongBox

10:30 AM

Funding The South: 2024 Outlook

Moderator: Liz Brigham, Director, Hurt Hub @Davidson
Mark Flickinger, COO, BIP Ventures
Brandon Shelton, Founder & Managing Partner, TFX Capital
Matt Dunbar, Cofounder and Managing Director, VentureSouth

11:15 AM

Showcase Pitches

  • Vectra Automation Inc
  • Caboodle Home Solutions
  • BILDIT
  • Greens Health
  • Flux Hybrids
  • Tax Titans
11:45 AM

Lunch & Startup Alley

1:15 PM

Standups & Startups

Robert E. Daniel, Founder & Chief Comedy Officer, Standups & Startups

1:30 PM

Showcase Pitches

  • MRGN
  • Candlelit Care
  • Momtech Inc.
  • Vectari
  • Rehicle
2:00 PM

Show Her The Money Movie - Trailer

2:10 PM

From Seed To Scale: Founder Insights on Scaling Success

Moderated by: Rob Cummings, Advisor, Investor, Exited Founder
Joe Giordano, CEO and Cofounder, Payzer
Justin Adams, CEO, Aiwyn
Christine Nicodemus, CEO, Wayhaven

2:50 PM

Networking // Coffee Break // Startup Alley

3:20 PM

Showcase Pitches

  • Fashivly
  • Asterion AI
  • BuilderComs
  • Outsyde
  • She Raises Capital
3:50 PM

Keynote Address

Karl Rectanus, Educator | Advisor | Operator | Optimist

4:30 PM

Founders & Funders Welcome Party

8:30 AM

Investor Breakfast (Investor Badges Only)

Ben Hicks, Attorney, Wagner Hicks PLLC

9:00 AM

Mindful Pitching – A Guided Meditation for Founders Pitching

9:15 AM

Doors Open // Startup Alley

10:00 AM

Day 2 Opening Remarks

Emcee: David Hunt, Founder, Framewrk
Juan Garzón, Managing Director, Innovate Charlotte

10:15 AM

Investor Panel: Decoding VC Investment Criteria

Moderated by: Ben Hicks, Attorney, Wagner Hicks PLLC
David Jones, General Partner, Bull City Venture Partners
Zakiya Alta Lee, Senior Associate, IDEA Fund Partners
Trevor Kienzle, Managing Director, Correlation Ventures

11:00 AM

Inside The Board Room - Fireside Chat

Ashley Gautreaux, Partner, CreativeCo Capital
Tyler Traudt, Cofounder & CEO, DebtBook

11:45 AM

Lunch & Startup Alley

1:15 PM

How We Seed The South As A Region

Moderated by: Allyson Eman, CEO, Venture Atlanta Sam Davidson, CEO, Nashville Entrepreneur Center
Kelly Rowell, CEO, CED
Matt Bell, Director, SC Launch at SCRA
Blake Patton, Founder and Managing Partner, Tech Square Ventures

2:00 PM

Big Pitch

  • Leantime
  • Storybutton
  • Salus CM
  • Stork Exchange
  • mPATH Health
2:45 PM

Standups & Startups #2

3:00 PM

Big Pitch

  • Spot
  • Gilly AI
  • ServeScape
  • HANK.ai
  • Wildcard
3:45 PM

Big Pitch Deliberation and Selection

Emcee: Tami McQueen, CMO, BIP Ventures
Mark McDowell, Managing Partner, Charlotte Fund
Stephanie Alger, Head of Strategy, Risk, and Analytics - Vista Credit Partners
Ashley Gautreaux, Partner, CreativeCo Capital
David Stunja, COO, PetScreening
Andrew Ashur, CEO & Founder at Lucid
Christine Nicodemus, CEO, Wayhaven

4:00 PM

Closing Thoughts

Juan Garzón, Managing Director, Innovate Charlotte

Presented By

Innovate Charlotte

Innovate Charlotte (InCLT) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to enhance, elevate, and accelerate entrepreneurial success in the greater Charlotte region. Our focus is on cultivating an intentionally inclusive and high impact ecosystem that stimulates innovation, economic growth and societal change. Innovate Charlotte seeks to serve as the ecosystem connector — a central hub from which diverse stakeholders’ efforts can be synchronized to maximize collective impact.

gWen

gWen, Growing Women Entrepreneurs Network, is a Charlotte-based non-profit that aims to accelerate growth for women entrepreneurs in the Southeast region by cultivating a founder-to-founder community centered around connections, education, mentorship, reciprocity, and access to funding opportunities.

Sponsors

Join Our Email List

Whether you’re looking to scale your startup, support promising ventures, or connect with local entrepreneurs, this is the place to be. Join our email list to stay updated with info on the summit.

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