{"id":972,"date":"2019-08-01T01:18:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T01:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williambissett.com\/?p=972"},"modified":"2019-08-08T20:35:42","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T20:35:42","slug":"charlotte-angel-connection-episode-089-continuing-to-build-the-charlotte-startup-ecosystem-with-evan-rozantes-and-chris-heivly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williambissett.com\/2019\/08\/01\/charlotte-angel-connection-episode-089-continuing-to-build-the-charlotte-startup-ecosystem-with-evan-rozantes-and-chris-heivly\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Angel Connection Episode 089: Continuing to Build the Charlotte Startup Ecosystem with Evan Rozantes and Chris Heivly"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n Today our guests are Evan Rozantes and Chris Heivly.\u00a0 \u00a0By the end of the podcast, you will clearly understand their passion and the importance of building a strong innovation ecosystem in the Charlotte and Raleigh areas.<\/p>\n Chris Heivly\u00a0<\/strong>began his career in DC, then Lancaster, PA then Chicago and moved to the Raleigh\/Durham area in 2005.\u00a0Chris is an entrepreneur (MapQuest Co-Founder), early-stage investor and now serial startup community builder.\u00a0He\u2019s spent time building up the ecosystem in Raleigh\/Durham as well as other cities and joined up with\u00a0Techstars<\/a>\u00a0in 2017 to continue that mission on a global basis.\u00a0In that role, he is an Entrepreneur in Residence as well as a VP of Innovation.\u00a0His passion is to help other communities grow their start-up scene, not just in North Carolina but around the World.<\/p>\n Evan Charles Rozantes\u00a0<\/strong>started his career in Boston working in Private Equity at Bain Capital prior to moving to DC to work in private equity and distressed lending at Capital Source Finance.\u00a0In 2006 he got the entrepreneur \u201cbug\u201d and started a promotional products company which he successfully exited.\u00a0Thereafter he went full steam into entrepreneurship without a net, co-founding a pediatric health care company in Boston.\u00a0A lifetime learner himself, in 2012 he co-founded\u00a0Launch Academy<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 one of the first coding schools in the world. \u00a0Evan relocated to the Davidson area in 2018 with his family where he subsequently met Chris in his effort to bring a TechStars program to Charlotte.<\/p>\n