Startup Champions Network

Startup Champions Network A national sharing group dedicated to supporting entrepreneurial ecosystem builders across the United States and the entrepreneurs they serve.

09/04/2026

Are you getting excited about ? We sure are!

There are so many things to celebrate that make Richmond not only cool but full of the entrepreneurial spirit. Here are 7 cool things you probably didn't know about :

🛍️ It was ranked #1 in the nation for supporting local businesses
🤖 It was named an AI Tech Talent Leader
💡 It was ranked one of the best cities for supporting high-growth startups
🦄 It's one of the most tattooed cities in the country
🗽 It has its own, mini replica of the Statue of Liberty
🥫There are 14 community fridges in the city powered by neighbors
🍔 There are over 550 restaurants (most of which are locally owned), one of the highest per-capita counts in the country

Curious to experience this ecosystem up close at the Fall 2026 Summit? Join us in RVA and see how this city shows up for its people every single day. 👉🏽 https://www.startupchampions.co/richmond-summit

Read more about Richmond 👉🏽 https://www.startupchampions.co/blog/2026/8/7/8-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-rva

Visit Richmond VA

Richmond's arts and culture scene is an engine for community building and economic growth. From murals that transform ne...
09/03/2026

Richmond's arts and culture scene is an engine for community building and economic growth. From murals that transform neighborhoods to markets that incubate small creative businesses to studios that train the next generation of working artists, Richmond's creative community has been doing ecosystem-building work for decades.

We've gathered three of Richmond's artists, organizers, and creative entrepreneurs who are shaping that work to discuss economic development through an arts lens: how public art projects build community trust and drive investment, how creative markets function as small business incubators, and how studio and gallery spaces create pathways into sustainable creative careers. We want attendees to leave understanding Richmond's arts scene not as a cultural amenity, but as a model for how creative practice and entrepreneurship reinforce each other.

Grab your tickets to ➡️ https://www.startupchampions.co/richmond-summit

Studio Two Three Mending Walls RVA The Richmond Night Market

🎉 Shout out to Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), a 2x SCN sponsor, first backing our Shenandoah Summit...
09/03/2026

🎉 Shout out to Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), a 2x SCN sponsor, first backing our Shenandoah Summit in 2024 and now showing up for Richmond!

VIPC's mission is to connect talent, capital, and opportunity so founders can launch, grow, and thrive across the Commonwealth. And the numbers back it up: Virginia just posted an all-time high of $2.9B in venture capital investment in 2025, according to the NVCA's Q4 Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor. That's nearly double what the state saw five years ago, with strong momentum across defense tech, cyber, AI, advanced air mobility, energy, and life sciences. Virginia also cracked the Top 10 in CNBC's "Technology & Innovation" state rankings for the first time this year.

ESOs like VIPC are a big reason why. Get your tickets to to learn more about this vibrant, startup-friendly ecosystem ➡️ https://www.startupchampions.co/richmond-summit

New member spotlight!Meet Brooke Beeler, Chief Visionary and Community Builder at Thrive DTSP. Brooke has dedicated her ...
09/02/2026

New member spotlight!

Meet Brooke Beeler, Chief Visionary and Community Builder at Thrive DTSP. Brooke has dedicated her career to helping small businesses grow through strategic operations, startup coaching, and community building. Her operational systems have helped companies scale tenfold, and she's passionate about connecting entrepreneurs with the resources, messaging, and support they need to thrive in St. Petersburg's growing innovation ecosystem.

These letters are in the hands of three amazing Richmond artists ahead of ! R: Hamilton GlassV: Nico CathcartA: Davi Le...
09/01/2026

These letters are in the hands of three amazing Richmond artists ahead of !

R: Hamilton Glass
V: Nico Cathcart
A: Davi Leventhal

We can't wait to see what they do with them!

Entrepreneurship has always had gatekeepers: capital, connections, credentials. AI is lowering some of those barriers an...
08/31/2026

Entrepreneurship has always had gatekeepers: capital, connections, credentials. AI is lowering some of those barriers and quietly raising others. This session, hosted by AI Ready RVA, gets specific about which is which.

Across peer-led cohorts in healthcare, finance, law, cybersecurity, and manufacturing, AI Ready RVA has watched Richmond business owners move from treating AI like a search engine to using it as a working thought partner.

The panel brings four operators who have started companies, invested in them, and built the systems underneath them. We will cover what changes for a founder with no consultant on retainer, whether the funding bar has actually moved, where adoption breaks inside real organizations, and what the compute powering all of it costs when the free tier ends. That last question matters more in Virginia than almost anywhere else in the country.

For ecosystem builders asking where AI fits in access and inclusion work beyond the hype, this is the session. Do you have your tickets to join us? ➡️ https://www.startupchampions.co/richmond-summit

SCN Board Chair Mark Lawrence made his way to Richmond to meet with ecosystem leaders and sponsors to share more about o...
08/28/2026

SCN Board Chair Mark Lawrence made his way to Richmond to meet with ecosystem leaders and sponsors to share more about our organization and see Richmond first-hand. We are 31 days away from ! Do you have your tickets yet? ➡️ https://www.startupchampions.co/richmond-summit

08/27/2026

Larkin Garbee discovered her role as an ecosystem builder after attending a Startup Champions Network Summit and plugging into the SCN community. Back then, it was Startup America, and when that organization dissolved, the folks who saw the value of what we do, launched Startup Champions Network to keep it going.

She took that amazing energy back to Richmond and began to build the foundation for the ecosystem as we know it now. First with Lighthouse Network, then with Startup Virginia and so much more. Here's just a small part of that story. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post featuring her role in the Richmond ecosystem.

Until then, join us in Richmond September 29th - October 1st to explore the ecosystem and see her work firsthand. ➡️ https://www.startupchampions.co/richmond-summit

Why does Startup Champions Network exists and who is it for? The people, the places, and the practices. To us, the netwo...
08/25/2026

Why does Startup Champions Network exists and who is it for? The people, the places, and the practices.

To us, the network is the win, which is why we convene the way we do: focused on supporting the people doing the work and connecting them to peers who are on the ground doing it too. At SCN, colleagues become collaborators and collaborators become friends.

Read more about why SCN is different and then join us in Richmond ➡️ https://www.startupchampions.co/blog/2026/8/25/where-startup-champions-belong

August is and we’re celebrating some incredible Black entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders in our community. ➡️ Mark L...
08/24/2026

August is and we’re celebrating some incredible Black entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders in our community.

➡️ Mark Lawrence, Inncuvate
➡️ Paulo Gregory, Cohado + Black Butterfly Network
➡️ Darlisa Diltz, Foundations NETC
➡️ Sharita Hayes, Friends of Ezra
➡️ Tanya Morris, Mom Your Business
➡️ Abiola Taylor, Venture Navigator
➡️ Tasemere Gathers, The DM Firm
➡️ Fay Horwitt, WayBuilders
➡️ Nicole Jones, Embodhi

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