ATVL Senior Mentor Fellow - Distinguished Entrepreneurial Leader

Erin facilitates connections to increase the Upstate entrepreneur ecosystem’s ability and capacity to help entrepreneurs be more successful faster.  She has been building ecosystems of support since first getting involved with entrepreneurship in Atlanta in 1994.

She currently mentors through NEXTGEN in Greenville, SC, in their MIT Venture Mentoring Service and has worked with founders of all types since 1997. Erin adds value to founders by her deep understanding of the startup process, funding mechanism, preparation for funding and how to develop an organization to accomplish both tasks and goals.

Erin recently retired as the Upstate Entrepreneur Ecosystem Director for Ten at the Top. In that role, she launched multiple programs to connect ecosystem partners for the benefit of local founders. This included raising the awareness of support programs for founders, professional education for support providers and efficiencies in the ecosystem. She wrote a playbook on trust building in ecosystems with a fellow ecosystem builder from Uganda.

Erin has received numerous awards and recognition throughout her career. Most recently, while working with Ten at the Top, she received the Partner of Distinction Award from the SC SBDC and the Welling Award for Regional Collaboration from Ten at the Top. In February, she received the Stacey McBride Community Leadership Award from the Spartanburg Area YMCA.

Prior to Ten at the Top, Erin served as director of the Spartanburg chapter of VentureSouth. She was the founding Director of the GreenHouse Business Incubator at the Johnson College of Business at USC Upstate, co-founder of the STUDIO, a student-run design and marketing agency, and the founding Startup Board Chair for the Hub City Cooperative. As founding Board Chair of the Innovative Rural Development Corporation, a 501(c)3 community development corporation, she supports economic, physical and community health by supporting agricultural-based initiatives.

She received a B.S. in Organizational Communication from the University of Texas at Austin before earning her MBA in International Business from Georgia State University. Erin's experience as a business founder, director of a business incubator, leader of community economic development activities and her involvement with Angel Investment groups gives her a wide range of experience to help launch startup ventures to reach their full market potential.

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