Startup ecosystems do not happen because people say innovation.
Jeff Brokaw co-founded a 23,500 sq ft innovation hub in Charlotte and helped build founder gravity around 50+ startups. The work combined physical infrastructure, founder programming, mentorship, pitch contests, academic advisory roles, and connective tissue.
Situation.
Startup ecosystems do not happen because people agree they should. They happen because someone builds the infrastructure: the room, the programming, the reason to show up every week.
Commercial problem.
Charlotte had ambitious founders. What it did not have was a place where they consistently collided with each other, with capital, with mentors, with operators who had been through it before. Fragmented and scattered is the default. Focused gravity is what you build.
Results in advance: an ecosystem is not a brand campaign. It is collision infrastructure.
What I rebuilt.
Jeff co-founded a 23,500 sq ft innovation hub in a converted 1920s factory: private offices, conference rooms, hot seats, a recording studio, and 9,000 sq ft of event space. Physical space was half of it. The other half was what filled the calendar: programming, pitch contests, mentorship, advisory work, and 50+ startups with somewhere to land.
Durable result.
Charlotte got a visible center of gravity. The companies that came through got access they did not have before. Jeff does not just operate inside ecosystems. He builds the rooms where they form.
Artifact drawer
Hub buildoutFounder programmingPitch contestsMentorshipAcademic advisoryCommunity narrative