Taking Off with First Flight

[00:00:02] What you want when you want it, where you want it. This is the MESH. Welcome to the Entrepreneur Exchange on the MESH podcast network. A monthly conversation about startups, small business with some ideas, tools and advice to operate your business more effectively.

[00:00:27] On today's show, we're taking off today with our guest, Emma Runge from the First Flight Venture Center, which is a business incubator located in the resource triangle park in North Carolina. And we'll be talking about how First Flight's gets new businesses off the runway and into the air.

[00:00:46] Please start your cliche count now. We'll also share some of the small businesses in the month that we've been coming across in our small businesses at the month of the year, so please stay tuned for that. Hello, my name is Jeff. I'm your co-host.

[00:01:00] I'm director of the Manufacturing Solutions Center in Contober, North Carolina. I'm joined by my co-host Gary Muller, who is executive dean of the economic and development and corporate education area within the Catava Valley Community College and Hickory, North Carolina.

[00:01:16] I haven't just happened to spit that out today, Gary. How you doing? I'm doing great. You continue to do well with that title. I know. I think it should be smoother at this point in time. I'm struggling a bit. It's all great. It's all great.

[00:01:28] All good with you? Yeah, everything's going well. We've got a beautiful day here. We're starting to see maybe a little bit of spring. Our weather goes up and down, kind of like the stock market. Well, actually the stock market goes just down.

[00:01:39] There's a little bit of volatility out there these days for sure, and maybe we'll get a chance to talk about that and get your stock picks later. Okay. That'd be great. Okay. Well, it would be cash. Cash is good. And not in the bank. Yes, that's a second.

[00:01:56] Well, let's welcome our guest today. Great. We've got the ML runj with us. Hey, ML, how you doing out there? Doing great. Jeff and Gary, this is a world of being with y'all today. Well, you're well, you're too kind.

[00:02:10] ML is the director programs at First Flight Venture Center, which is the first person. I think he's the first person. It said he was happy to be with us. Oh, so I'm going to just kidding. Some other liars are out there.

[00:02:19] But anyway, he's used the director program at First Flight Venture Center, which is a business operator, which focuses on science and technology. As mentioned, there are in the resource triangle park here in North Carolina. And ML is working on developing new programs, developing partnerships, developing funding

[00:02:37] opportunities for companies and ML goodness knows what else you might be working on. But we appreciate you joining us. It's really pleasure. I look forward to looking forward to the conversation. Well, why it, first flight venture center has been around for over 30 years, 30 years.

[00:02:52] Tell us a little bit about First Flight Venture Center, and you guys have a very specific niche. So tell us a little bit about the types of companies that you're working with. I'll be thrilled to.

[00:03:03] So Jeff, our mission is to propel early stage science and technology innovators through the delivery of comprehensive resources into empower entrepreneurs to transform good ideas and to great successes. And you're absolutely right. We've been fortunate to have been around for over 31 years.

[00:03:20] We've had over 400 companies come through here on the just the incubator side in that period of time. As an incubator, we have 32 offices, 32 labs. We're again serving those high-science high tech high impact companies. Not only is a triangle region across North Carolina, and we actually serve companies globally.

[00:03:44] We typically have anywhere between 30 and 40 resident companies here at any given time because the footprint of the companies is a little bit larger now. We're closer, you were just north of 30 in terms of the number of companies.

[00:03:55] And we're the longest standing nonprofit science focus business incubator in North Carolina. In terms of our history, we were actually formulated out of the 1983 new technology jobs act, which created the North Carolina technology development authority.

[00:04:10] And then we were spun out of the North Carolina Department of Commerce in 1991. Advanced to 2002, the North Carolina technology development authority became a self-sustaining entity and the government funding actually ceased. So since 2002, we've been a standalone nonprofit without operating dollars on an annual basis from the state.

[00:04:38] And we're thrilled to not only serve those 30 to 40 companies here as an incubator, but as an innovation hub, we serve hundreds of North Carolina companies any given year.

[00:04:49] In fact, some of the programs that we've launched will get into a little bit more detail on in a few minutes. But just since 2010, we've launched our navigators program, when your name's first flight just owned the aviation.

[00:05:03] So you're going to see this in just a moment. Our navigators, those are our mentors and we have over 40 mentors who've been there done that. They're helping our entrepreneurs and they we launched that program back in 2012 and so they're helping in numerous different capacities.

[00:05:21] We do a science talk every month. That's our we call that itineraries. And we like to highlight that we're a nerd hub and a nerd region. And you know, this gives our scientists the chance to go ahead and attain nerd.

[00:05:33] So we can go ahead and weigh it into that a little bit more in a moment. Our lift off program is a subsidized grant writing program. We launched that in December of 2015. We've subsidized over a quarter of a million dollars in grant writing.

[00:05:48] That's yielded over $18 million in SBI R awards since we started that in 2015. I'll get into a little bit more detail on that as well. Hanger 6, we launched in 2017 that happens to be our prototyping center again.

[00:06:02] And then and then we're currently in our fifth year of the SBA has a program called Fast, the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program,

[00:06:11] which is trying to go ahead and help those entrepreneurs go after SBI R awards, especially female in minority owned and underserved communities. So basically think about community to outside of the tribe.

[00:06:21] So we're really trying to go ahead and amp up the capacity of companies that are looking to apply for SBI R's across the state in North Carolina. We'll be doing a two-day boot camp for that.

[00:06:35] We've got about 35 companies that we've already identified to go ahead and do that on April the 20th and 21st, honored to be a part of that program. BARD is the biomedical advanced research and development authority. They focus on national health security threats.

[00:06:49] Take for example a global pandemic, not that that would ever happen. And what we do with them is we're basically having a two-way conversation with them. We're one of 13 innovation hubs around the country that are highlighting BARD funding opportunities,

[00:07:03] but then also spotlighting some of the cool stuff that's going on in our ecosystem to them and helping identify companies to potentially get funded. We launched our propeller early stage accelerator program in 2021 as well as our test flight pitch practice session and our founders roundtable,

[00:07:21] and the company's going ahead and provides a continuing, you know, basically continuous services. It's hard being an entrepreneur and helps them really move that forward. And then we launched our wheels up accelerator last fall and we actually had 10 companies go through that initial cohort.

[00:07:37] We did that in conjunction with BARD. It was focused on the companies in that space. We had five companies in the drug discovery space and five companies in the bio and manufacturing space.

[00:07:47] So that's a quick overview of our timeline and I can go into more of our programs in just a few minutes. Well, that was not quick, you know, once you get rolling your hard to stop that. That's a lot of stuff.

[00:08:00] It's a little bit of a filibuster program. Yeah, and I like the names of the programs. So tying in to aviation. So I mean, talk a little bit about the niche that you serve. I mean, there are other business incubators out there.

[00:08:16] But you guys are very much in the science slash technology area, which I don't know if that came from... I don't know if that's where you've always been or where you evolved to.

[00:08:28] But just to also have a bit about the types of companies that you're working with and types of companies that might be good fit for the work that you're doing at first flight. That sounds great.

[00:08:40] So in again, it depends on the types of programs that we happen to be running. So for example, at our incubator, you know, because of the labs that we have, you know, if you're doing an app or probably not for you, which is fine.

[00:08:54] I mean, you can go ahead and do that in a number of different locations. Because we've got chemical fumes, biologic hoods, et cetera, you know, we're really geared to go ahead and help those.

[00:09:04] You know, it could be biotech, it could be clean tech, it could be ag tech. It could be the hard tech side of things where you're possibly engineering things. So again, it's usually those companies that have a high barrier to entry for what it is they're doing.

[00:09:21] So not all of the companies that are on the incubator side here are necessarily going after SBIRs. Let me explain us BIRs briefly. BIRs small business innovation research.

[00:09:31] If a federal agency's research and development budget is over $100 million, then about 3.2% of their budget goes into this program called Small Business Innovation Research.

[00:09:42] And so a lot of the companies with whom we work are going to be going after those types of programs because they may not be able to get a customer for five to 10 years. Because the regulatory pathways for them are just going to, they just check too long.

[00:09:58] And you know, we're talking entrepreneurs here, where can you get your money from? Well, the most logical spot is customers. But in addition of that, you know, sometimes you need an investor dollars or equity capital and on the other side,

[00:10:11] you might possibly be looking at non-deluted funding or these SBIRs TTR funding opportunities. And so on that particular side of things, our fast program is a statewide program that we do to go ahead and help highlight the SBIR program.

[00:10:30] We work with partners like those State Department of Commerce to highlight their one and C program so that folks can understand, alright, what can we possibly do to go ahead and actually get.

[00:10:42] Matching dollars to go ahead and actually help us pay for our grant application or if we win, what can we possibly go ahead and do from a matching standpoint. Let's say I've got funding from an SBIR from a federal agency for an SBIR.

[00:10:57] I can get matching dollars from the State program through the Department of Commerce. And so our fast program is specifically geared to go ahead and increase the number of female owned minority owned underserved communities going after and ideally winning those SBIR funding opportunities.

[00:11:14] And then our lift off program is a subsidized grant writing program when we launched that in December 2015 2014 North Carolina ranked 16th in the country in SBIR awards.

[00:11:29] In 2021, which is the last year for which we have the data we ranked seventh, but we're not entirely responsible for that move up of nine states.

[00:11:36] Our leadership role definitely helped shine a light on this when it was as a result of being in a great ecosystem that was focused on this that we were able to help you know be a part of moving the state forward in that regard.

[00:11:48] A question that comes to my mind when you talk about the programs and you're involved with the types of companies that you're involved with.

[00:11:55] IP intellectual property, you know, how does do companies working in your incubator have to share that with first fight or they get to keep that. How does that work because I know that many new companies are very sensitive about that. The companies keep it so there's there's no.

[00:12:15] Yeah, that's the short answer and that's the full answer is the companies keep their IP. That's a good answer. So yeah, that's that's really.

[00:12:26] So and then you know real quick on hangar sex one of the things that we possibly do you know we're able to do with them is from a prototyping standpoint we can put them in a better position to actually apply for.

[00:12:39] And when you know we did some grant right, you know some basically were able to partner with them so that they can possibly put a rendering into their SBI or application.

[00:12:49] And then if they win we can help them actually move towards a prototype as part of their SBI or award. So those are some of the things that we try and do to go ahead and meet companies where they are and help move them to the next level.

[00:13:03] You have a lot of stuff going on there. How did how did you parachute into first flight? I'm sorry. Hopefully. Awesome. I've been fortunate to have actually been focused on the innovation in entrepreneurship space since 2010.

[00:13:20] Actually when I was a student at Georgia Tech, I would highlight I go down to the general assembly highlight why you want to fund a research university back in the early 90s. And I'd point to a state funded incubator as clear why you want to do that.

[00:13:33] So, so since 2010, I've really been focused on how to go ahead and actually develop innovation in entrepreneurial ecosystems. And then when we moved to the triangle in 2017, I was fortunate to have gotten connected into first flight. Actually started volunteering here in January of 2018.

[00:13:53] We went after the federal funding opportunity for part of the former president said, Emile, if we win this, do you want to run it? I looked at Andy and I said,

[00:14:02] Andy, you know I don't know anything about national health security, but I'll be more than happy to help develop an ecosystem. So he said, all right, we can go ahead and do that.

[00:14:10] So what's actually been really cool about that is with that partnership with part of some of the things that we've actually done.

[00:14:17] We've been able to go ahead and identify, all right, you may be too early for part of part of stands for the biomedical advanced research and development authority. So it goes back to meeting those entrepreneurs where they are in their developmental cycle.

[00:14:30] So we were able to instead guide those companies say to national science foundation for SBI, our funding or national institute to help. So that we're able to go ahead and increase the pipeline of funding for part of.

[00:14:40] In fact, one of the things that we did a year ago was we convinced part of it go ahead and do a bench to part of series so that as as technologies were being spun out of the universities. Let's go ahead and actually provide that systemic path forward.

[00:14:54] So the folks if you go, all right, I'm spinning out. All right, where do I need to look first? I can go ahead and initially look at say.

[00:15:00] And and SBI are from NSF or national institute to health, which might be a little bit later stage before actually getting the bar because if you're going to bar. You know, out the gate, you're just going to get a little body.

[00:15:13] So, you know, spinning stuff out of the university, magic happening, getting bar to funding is really not a sustainable business model.

[00:15:21] So what we've gone ahead and done is go ahead take the companies there was one company with whom we were working they reached out to us in February of 2020.

[00:15:29] And so, you know what we're interested in this whole bar to thing, it's early on in the pandemic we're doing disease modeling at the nano level.

[00:15:37] And leveraging AI to go ahead and do that. It's like, all right, and you're I'm way over my skis in terms of your technology description, but let's go ahead and see what we can do you're too early for bar to.

[00:15:48] They ended up we instead ended up going ahead and having them get NSF funding we pointing to them pointed them to NSF.

[00:15:56] We were able to go ahead help you know help them identify a freelance grant writer and they've since gone ahead and gotten the NSF phase one in phase two.

[00:16:06] And I H phase one in phase two they got rad X, which is under NIH and that happens to be focused on diagnostics diagnostics.

[00:16:14] They've raised $3.3 million in non-delutive funding since then in addition to that they've gone through a number of other accelerator programs including Y-commonator and Medtech innovator, which is part of the bar to drive innovation hub network.

[00:16:29] They've got a program called Biotools. They went through that Biotools program as well. So as a result of connecting them in that ecosystem, it's helped improve their probability of success.

[00:16:39] And so those are the types of things that we try and do is all right here's the script but sometimes the script doesn't work. What can we do to go ahead and meet the companies where they are to go ahead and improve that their probabilities of success?

[00:16:52] And that sort of support that you're providing is that just to folks that are within the incubator or if somebody comes to you with with with that type of business, you're able to assist them and guide them to potential funding sources.

[00:17:09] That company has never actually had a lab that first flight. That's just one of the companies that we've helped that is not at first flight. This is one of the things that we do from an ecosystem perspective.

[00:17:25] You mentioned several of the different programs that you guys support, you know, hangar six and prototyping. How do how do is that just limited to the folks there on side or how do people access that and what benefits do they get out of that?

[00:17:39] No, I mean one of the great things about hangar six is it's able to go ahead and we're able to go ahead and they're able to go ahead and help those companies.

[00:17:49] You know work out of here so that they can go ahead they do not have to be first flight companies.

[00:17:55] It's instead of membership model that's separate of their time here at first flight. So it's its own holy holy focused program at first flight so you can do a monthly membership. So you get access to the different machines.

[00:18:08] And so that's one of those where if you're trying to develop a prototype feel free to engage with us.

[00:18:14] We can put you in touch with one of our, you know, we've got a PhD in engineering that can go ahead and work with you to go ahead and help take that idea from an app can drawing to a prototype. Very good.

[00:18:29] And you mentioned the propeller program and I think what you're doing there is really trying to do some testing of business viability and pretty intensive program. Tell us about your propeller program. Absolutely that was an early stage accelerator program and specifically for this group.

[00:18:46] We also partner with the, it's a lovely acronym that the DMCSP, the Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program. It just rolls off the tongue. And so we work with the DMCSP through to go ahead and partner with manufacturing solution center on that one.

[00:19:07] But we happen to have scholarships as a result of this program for a company that are focused on textiles or wearables. And so what's propeller did. It's it's an early stage accelerator program. Let's say you're spinning out of a university or you're really early in your developmental cycle.

[00:19:26] It helps you better communicate the business value of your idea. You're going to end up working on your elevator pitch every week. So it's a cohort based model we can do it as a hybrid program. You can either be in person or virtual.

[00:19:38] Again, that three hours per week. The methodology basically breaks down to so what who cares why you on the so what side we're going to start you off kind of friendly what's your idea.

[00:19:48] You're going to go ahead and do a napkin drawing so that people are able to go ahead and go oh, I had no clue what you were talking about. You've just drawn a pretty picture for me. I have a better idea as to what you're talking about.

[00:19:58] And then we're going to move over into a little bit more of the eat your vegetables portion of it. All right now that you've got your lovely idea, what commercial problem when you're going to solve. And then from there, so that way you're actually building that business approach.

[00:20:09] And so with that what's your pain? What are the priorities? What are your proof points? How can you how can you go ahead and get that hook so that somebody goes oh wait I want to learn more.

[00:20:18] And then what's your you know what's what market do you kind of fit in? So you're going to be doing different visualization tools to go ahead and help support this. From there you'll move over into the why and you know the who cares part.

[00:20:31] That's going to be customer discovery. And then you're going to be looking at what's what's what's wrong with what types of things. You're going to you're going to brainstorm what broad range of customers you potentially going to focus on.

[00:20:41] And then you're going to hone in your probably first three to five groups. First one to first one to three ideally and hone in on who those are. So you're able to come up with some quantitative and qualitative attributes for those types of customers.

[00:20:55] So that you're able to go ahead and better understand what it is they're looking for. And then you're going to go ahead and think about what your ecosystem look like the key thing on that one is to understand who your strategic partners could potentially be.

[00:21:06] And then you'll do a road level financial modeling tool the key thing there is to go ahead and actually start thinking about what are those assumptions. What times what is going to equal revenue. And then the why you part is what's your competitive edge.

[00:21:20] So that you're able to go ahead and pop onto into a into a power point. And that here's why I'm in the upper right corner this is my special sauce. This is what separates me from the competition.

[00:21:31] And then you also come up with a with an execution strategy on the back end, you'll go ahead and have a demo day or showcase where you're probably doing that with say.

[00:21:41] In that defense text to the group you know five or six companies are in some of our different cohorts that could be anywhere between five and ten companies in that cohort. Typically eight to ten minute presentation with some time for feedback and Q&A.

[00:21:56] Our navigators or integral parts of that particular program. They again they there are mentors who've been there and done that and it really helps up the game of the companies that are going through it.

[00:22:08] Certainly you know when Gary and I have work with startups you have customer discovery trying to assess that viability. You know it's so important and can save people so much heart burn and dollars if they're doing a more thorough review of that.

[00:22:26] How the cohorts that have gone through that are I assume there's a lot of learning going on and some people probably take a step back and say this might not work or might not be viable.

[00:22:39] Is that some of the outcomes that you see spot on Jeff you're absolutely right that's actually.

[00:22:46] You need to go ahead and figure out is there are there and one of the other nice things about this is you're getting it in a really condensed format and one of the sweet spots for it is.

[00:22:56] You may be a scientist or technologist that hasn't been in the business world how do you go ahead and better understand the language of business. And so it's not quite you know it's almost like a condensed entrepreneurial MBA program.

[00:23:10] Where you're doing an echo port based model so you're actually working with other folks in a non competitive setting to go ahead and lift your lift your your company to the next level.

[00:23:21] It's going to help you identify those potential markets some of the companies that you're working with maybe going through the I core program.

[00:23:27] This actually complements the I core program you can do propeller before the I core program so you figured out who do you want to possibly start reaching out to in terms of your your customer questions, you know where you're doing like either 20 or 100 different customer interviews this helps you organize that.

[00:23:45] You've done the customer interviews before propeller can still be useful because you've already identified you may not have actually bumped them by industry cluster that can help you figure out your execution strategy.

[00:23:55] Very good so so we you were talking about some of the ways that you assisted folks in finding funding and you know if you.

[00:24:04] Read if you're alive and are reading the news these days there have been some issues out there with banks and and silicon valley bank which has done a lot of catering to startups and entrepreneurs.

[00:24:16] You know what what do you see out there in the funding horizon you know it sounds like. You know debt is really not a way that. A lot of the folks that you're working with probably are starting with it sounds but but.

[00:24:30] But what's what's your take on the the landscape at this point in time. That's a great question so on the funding side there are a couple things.

[00:24:38] First of all we you know there were a couple of companies that we we had and are incubator and other folks who were reaching out to us trying to figure out what to do with in regards to silicon valley back.

[00:24:49] And that was one of those that as a result of being in a robust ecosystem while we weren't taking necessarily taking the lead on that there were other folks who are actually sharing information so we were in a great position actually share that out with.

[00:25:01] With companies when they when we knew that it was relevant for them so that's how this integrated ecosystem works best is. Folks reach out to you you know they're not going on a door. But how do you go ahead and put them in the best position so that.

[00:25:15] The doors that they knock on are meaningful they're getting the information that they need and you're giving soft intros to the next door if they happen to need to go to an extra door.

[00:25:25] And so some folks reached out we were able to go ahead and get the meaningful information specifically in regards to silicon valley back but then in addition to that.

[00:25:34] Because so many of the companies that were working on are focused on on the non-delutive funding side you know then. That's still up and run and so now non-delutive funding doesn't make sense for everybody in fact it's going to not make sense for most companies.

[00:25:48] You're just going to you know if you're not relevant if you're able to get customers faster than you're able to actually go through that that grant process and go get customers. They'll keep buying from me. This is a beautiful thing. Customers are your friend.

[00:26:03] You know but on the non-delutive funding side if you've got somebody who can't actually sell a product for five to ten years then you're going to need to get funding from somewhere else.

[00:26:12] So that's where the non-delutive funding side makes sense and in regards to that you know that investor or that equity funding side. The reality is is because of the you know there is a little bit of uncertainty in the market right now.

[00:26:24] So folks are going to double down on some of the investments that they've already made. So they're going to keep some of that drive powder so they can go ahead and make sure that the investments that they've already made are continuing to be in a good position moving forward.

[00:26:36] But the reality is is they're going to so the money's going to get tighter. So you're going to need to get scrappy or in terms of how you're looking. I'm not saying it's easy but these are usually great times to be starting companies because. Because there's opportunity now.

[00:26:55] And so you know when you start thinking about how that entrepreneurial journey happens to go. When time starts getting a little bit lean people look back and go man there were some really amazing companies that got started during those tough times.

[00:27:10] This could be a good time to actually be launching your enterprise. The folks I talked to continue to say look there's funding out there's just it's got to be the right idea it's got to be the right timing and everything so it's.

[00:27:23] You know it's I suspect it's getting tighter but for the right idea and the right fit there's funding out there.

[00:27:30] Absolutely there was a company that reached out to us that did an initial pitch practice session so real quick for any of your folks we do a pitch practice session the first Tuesday of every month.

[00:27:41] Typically you know we'll do up to two companies ten minute pitch ten minutes of feedback and Q and a. We call it test flight we can either have you in person or zoomed in.

[00:27:53] You know we've zoomed folks in from as far away as when us are as Argentina so we're open to zoom and folks in for. We've been in a good time. I'm hoping for a new one of the best of all of us.

[00:28:09] Well, hook print by him when the day this is an ag tech play so Calmeethane is responsible for ten percent of greenhouse gases. All of transportation is about 14 percent.

[00:28:17] So this has been out at NC state they're leveraging three different patents from there and their probiotic yeast can potentially reduce. So really early stage company they actually just completed our propeller program but they went ahead and did the pitch practice program.

[00:28:35] The test flight pitch practice to go ahead and actually it was their first pitch to go ahead and actually prepare themselves to start reaching out to investors.

[00:28:42] One of the nice things about that was because of where they happened to have been we had navigators are meant for us that were in the room one of the folks is like hey. I'm going to have raised some money in the ag tech space.

[00:28:53] I may know who I may have some ideas as to where you're going to want to go on that and so there were soft you know there were warm introductions that were actually made.

[00:29:03] As a result of doing that pitch practice session so as an entrepreneur you need to get out the door and go ahead and make sure folks understand just how good your idea happens to be.

[00:29:12] I'm going to have a pitch practice session so it's very valuable to help shape that message making more understandable and getting getting the feedback that I'm sure you're providing to them so that sounds good. So just in terms of the challenges that your your incubator companies face.

[00:29:33] Is it funding or are there other issues out there I mean what what one of the biggest challenges say face going from incubator clients to hopefully at some point taking off. Well played on the taking off. So people are always going to highlight the fun day.

[00:29:52] In addition to that sometimes if you're able to go ahead and find some strategic customers that's going to really help you go ahead and to borrow a phrase from Hank Stranneman old coach for the Kansas City Chiefs to go ahead and help you matriculate the ball up the field.

[00:30:06] And so as we're thinking about that all right you're able to go ahead and line up some strategic customers that's also.

[00:30:13] If you're able to go you know and that way you're getting real life feedback from somebody who may very long want to go ahead and buy your product.

[00:30:22] And so that those are some of those introductions that can potentially be made you know not you know some of the companies we work with for example maybe looking at hospitals or at other groups like that.

[00:30:34] So possibly making a warm introduction to somebody who may be a strategic investor and or a potential customer or some things that we we trying to do one of the companies here is actually doing a hospital bed supplement.

[00:30:46] And so the number of nurses that it takes to actually flip and oversized patient maybe five or six folks and a lot of folks hurt their backs as a result of this.

[00:30:55] So the company sent a device is they came out of you know the founder was an undergrad at Duke he was talking to folks in the nursing program is to what their biggest challenges happen to have been.

[00:31:07] And so one of the things that we've helped try and do is all right you're you've been able to go ahead and test it Duke but what can we possibly do to open up our roll of decks.

[00:31:17] To go ahead and help you actually have some warm introductions to say hospitals when it's relevant. And when it's meaningful for the hospitals to actually engage with you because you don't want that disconnect because then you're not a value partner on other side.

[00:31:32] But if you're at that stage where it actually makes sense that warm introduction actually benefits both sides. Well and often we call that traction right getting that initial traction and certainly being able to show whether it be investors, lenders, whoever that you got a little.

[00:31:50] Sales and you know on in your accounts is always what what grabs their interest so that's that's great. So so, emiles we sort of wind things up any other parting advice you want to throw out to folks as they might be starting an entrepreneurial journey.

[00:32:07] You're going to have, you know this is going to be a team sport you know when you're an entrepreneur you know.

[00:32:13] Don't think of this as a me thing think of this as you know listen I'm going to need to build a team I'm going to one of the great things about North Carolina is the ecosystem here.

[00:32:22] And so you've got a number of phenomenal partners that you can possibly read you know lean in on when we were talking to a company out of Florida there were and we were initially talking to them about our propeller program.

[00:32:33] That was one of those were like you're too late for us in that particular program you make a you probably make a ton of sense for the manufacturing solution center.

[00:32:41] So it's a matter of going ahead and working with those trusted partners so that we can actually connect you best within the ecosystem to improve your probability of success.

[00:32:51] So keep raising your hand keep leanin in and trying to figure out how to go ahead make the ecosystem work for you.

[00:32:57] I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but it is you know entrepreneurs about the most rewarding thing that you'll ever in move in on in your professional career.

[00:33:08] Well look we really appreciate you joining us today people want to find out more about the first flight where should they be looking.

[00:33:15] Our website is ffvcnc.org as in first flight venture center north carolina dot org in addition to that my email address is erunge at ffvcnc.org. I'm going to go ahead and see if you can get a video on the screen. CSPs propeller program.

[00:34:05] And so in they're getting support services from RTI and others to go ahead and help take them to the next level. That's a me as a great example of how this ecosystem works best. It's a continuum of services with a number of different parties leaning in

[00:34:18] to go ahead and try and help make sure North Carolina is a leader in innovation and entrepreneurship. And why was the name of that company again? OmniVision? On Division, O&DA. Oh, and DA. All right, we're going to look them up. Sounds good. And it's lovely.

[00:34:35] Well, you know, we always like to have our guest play our lightning round. You're going to be up for that. All right, let me step up to the plate. All right. Well, today's lightning round is sponsored by Ned Ryerson Insurance, whole life, auto flood home.

[00:34:49] You can't have enough insurance. Gary, am I right? Absolutely. All right. We'll check out Ned Ryerson Insurance on the internet. Anyway, we've got some quick questions for you. Emma, quick answers. Don't think too hard. First question, what is your biggest pet peeve?

[00:35:06] I try to hold off on pet peeves. No pet peeves? I'll be right. I'll be right. I'll be right. I'll be right. I'll be right. I'll be right. I'll be right. God bless him. Yeah. Okay, that's an interesting answer. All right. Beatles or Rolling Stones or Taylor Swift.

[00:35:24] Beatles, my first album that I purchased when I was a kid with Sergeant Pepper. Okay, good answer. Adult Beverage Recommendation. I actually buy the wine for thirsty Thursday is at first what? Okay, so it's wine. Any particular wine or you just like I want?

[00:35:41] I'm going to be drinking on a red wine guy. Okay, red wine. Who do you have or who did you have winning this year's NCAA tournament? I believe my bracket is shredded right now. At this point, I'm not stopping.

[00:35:57] I'm probably playing for Gonzaga and Princeton to be in the final just to go ahead and create havoc. But I'm better you do. I'm sure you didn't have Princeton in your final four when this thing started. I don't know what you're talking about, yeah. Okay, all right.

[00:36:15] Last question. I did work for the Bradley Presidential Campaign. So we'd have to one the clock back to 64 probably for the last time that they were in the final. You're right about that. I was a little bit younger than that. That has familiar ring with Wake Forest.

[00:36:31] That's back when we were last time. All right, yeah. Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, let's look forward anyway. And the last question for you if you could have one superpower what would it be? Great question.

[00:36:49] And I think I would like to, I think I would enjoy being able to inspire hope and optimism in the other folks around us. I think the world is a great place.

[00:37:08] And so how do we go ahead and put folks in a better position to actually push themselves forward? I want to lift other folks up. All right. As a while, working with entrepreneurs. You're lifting folks up. You have no pet peeves.

[00:37:19] You know, we're going to have to do more investigating to find out your flaws. And while I'm sure there's some out there. I want a flaw. It's just ask either of my kids. OK. Get that. That's terrible. Me and I want pet peeves. OK. All right.

[00:37:32] Well, we very much appreciate you joining us today. If you want to find out about first flight, hit us again with your website there. www.ffvcnc.org as in First Flight Venture Center North Carolina dot oj.

[00:37:48] I'm thinking if you just go out to Google and put it in First Flight Venture Center, you're going to find them as well. I think the Google would work on that. All right. Well, Emily, you share the small business that you've worked with.

[00:38:00] Gary, do you have a small business? Do you want to give a shout out to today? I have a few. And they tie into food or sweets or pets. That's where it's now food.

[00:38:11] And I'm going to do a shout out because our college, even though folks will not be hearing it by the time we have our open house, it will pass because it's tomorrow March 25th. But we're really excited about getting parents and children going to college to our campus.

[00:38:28] We got a lot of great things to promote and lot of things going well with the college. But what I want to promote the relates to what we're talking about today is we're going to have food truck rodeo. Okay.

[00:38:42] For all the people that come, we're excited about that. Have you ever heard of that before? The food truck, you know, from the little bit. No, what do you true truck rodeo is? Yeah, so we'll bring a whole bunch of them in and let's have a fun time.

[00:38:54] Yeah, we have eight of the best food trucks in Catava County. That includes taco king, gas up, which by the way, they're specialties, our grilled cheese, dipersy, urban flavor. Chugger frappe, waffle chick, 30 thumbs and pop-poss delightful dogs. I'm going to try one something from each one.

[00:39:18] Sounds like you're going to have a fabulous day. It's going to be a great day. I'll probably not feel real well at 9 o'clock tomorrow night. Well, you know, I'm excited about it. Trying to work in some fruits and vegetables. Would you? There's not any in the truck.

[00:39:30] I know. So you need to try to work somewhere that in, okay? All right. There's a Coke sin. Is that work for fruit? A what? Coca-Cola. I don't think that. I think that's good for you either. Well, I was about 26 years in Atlanta. I think that'll work.

[00:39:44] There you go. That's perfect. He's doing his part every day. Yeah, I started with a 32 ounce Coke. Anyway, well, I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago and ran into a woman who is involved with a business and I thought it was interesting called soft golf.

[00:40:04] And it's a large format full swing golf game that uses patented, oversized equipment, clubs and balls. Makes golfing much easier for those of us that are not good golfers or novice. Can we take this on the golf course? Well, they have a golf course. Oh, okay.

[00:40:25] In when's outside of Winston's helmet, Tangled Park? They also are there also working on coming up with a mobile game to sell the consumers. So as someone that's pretty much a duffer, I was intrigued by this and next time

[00:40:42] I'm in the Winston area, I think going to Tangled one, I might check them out. They have a nine hole course there. We had to look into expand and make it easy for corporate events, sell to corporations for some team building type work.

[00:40:56] So anyway, I'm giving a shout out to the good folks at soft golf. If you go to www.soft golf.net, you'll learn more about them. That's cool. You know it? I worked two summers there while I was at Wake Forest. I tagged all of it? Yeah.

[00:41:11] The junior golf session. I did not know that. Yeah. All right. Well if you've got a suggestion for our entrepreneur exchange small business in the month, you can email them to us at E Exchange.

[00:41:23] Get the mesh.tv and I'd like to use yours, so send them to us. Emma we want to thank you for joining us today. It's been a pleasure. Good to see you. Well it's just been mod. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Been great.

[00:41:37] We also want to give our thanks as always to the mesh podcast network if you go out to the mesh.tv. You'll see all sorts of cool podcasts in the stable with podcasts that they have. So check those out at the mesh.tv.

[00:41:52] We look forward to seeing everyone or maybe not seeing it. We'll talk to you again next month. Have a good one. Take care. You've been listening to the mesh and online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts, sports to entertainment, music to community.

[00:42:21] Our programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube. Check us out online at the mesh.tv. Just go to our other network shows and give us feedback on what you just heard.