Startup Checkup: Roanoke, Blacksburg short on cash to launch startups
Entrepreneurs in need of cash to grow their startups in Roanoke, Blacksburg or Lynchburg likely won’t find what they’re looking for at home, new data from the Valleys Innovation Council suggests.
On average, the region has accounted for less than 2% of all Virginia’s venture capital investments over the past four years.
Charlottesville brought in four times as much venture capital between 2015 and 2018 as Roanoke, Blacksburg and Lynchburg combined. Chattanooga, Tennessee, quintupled the region’s take; Birmingham, Alabama, almost tripled it.
The statistics, collected by the Valleys Innovation Council with funding from a GO Virginia grant, drives home a recurring theme across virtually every type of funding startups need at various stages in their life cycles:
There isn’t enough money.
To read more about what people have to say about this situation, and some potential solutions, check out the whole article below.