WILMINGTON – Starting your own company is a dream for many, and Wilmington’s start-up community – especially in the tech sector – has been growing rapidly. But what does it take to get a fledgling business’s name out there?
A free event this week, produced by Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington (NEW), will try to answer that. The event features a range of perspectives, including one of North Carolina’s most active start-up investors, David Gardner, and well as the founder and owner of Wake N Bake Donuts, Danny Tangredi.
The event will feature both speakers and a panel to answer questions for aspiring entrepreneurs. At past NEW events, much of the audience has come from the tech field, but according to NEW founder Jim R. Roberts, there’s been increasing demand for perspectives on other kinds of start-ups.
Tangredi said it will be interesting to see how his experiences match up against more “traditional” start-ups.
“I’m not a tech-guy, so it’ll be interesting to be on the panel,” Tangredi said. “I’ll kind of be shooting from the hip.”
Tangredi might not be part of tech scene, but he has plenty of experience with a start-up, and with marketing. Wake N Bake’s specialty donuts, posted on social media, have repeatedly gone viral. And while some of Tangredi’s creations have been controversial, they’ve also been effective marketing.
“We were able to get on Snoop Dogg’s radar, those posts got us on an acclaimed cooking show, so, it’s been valuable. Some people see these things that have gone viral and say, ‘it’s just a doughnut,’ but it’s also our personality, our brand if you wanna call it that, getting out there,” Tangredi said.
Tangredi, who built Wake N Bake “from the bones,” also handles all the social media for the store. Although he said he would like to ultimately hand the responsibility off to someone else, he said he can definitely speak to some outside the box marketing methods.
Perhaps more traditional, but undeniably successful, Gardner will also give his thoughts on marketing a new company.
Gardner started Cofounders Capital after starting and selling six of his own companies. Now he invests, doing so early in the business process, much earlier than many investors. Gardner’s focus is on start-ups’ philosophy and mindset.
“I’m always very interested in how they think, how they execute what they have to execute,” Gardner said.
Gardner doesn’t teach classes, but does provide guidance to start-ups, sometimes in the form of “homework.” If young companies – “the kids,” as Gardner calls them – are doing well, Gardner has a fund that allows him to help get start-ups some much-needed capital.
“If they’re getting stuff done – their homework – if they’re doing what they need to do, then there’s up to $500,000 available to them,” Gardner said.
Much of Gardner’s work has focused on the triangle area, but he’s interested in the Wilmington start-up community as well. Gardner has a house on Figure Eight Island and is pretty familiar with the scene. According to Gardner, just as important – if not more important – than capital, is “who is around the table with you when you get started.”
That, according to Gardner, has a lot to do with how young companies “get themselves out there.”
NEW’s free event will be held Tuesday, April 24, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Ironclad Brewery, 115 North 2nd St. in downtown Wilmington. Other speakers will include nCino’s director of public relations, Kathryn Cook; co-founder of FluentPR Ann Revell Pechar; and WHQR’s Vince Winkel.
More information about the event can be found here.
On the map: Ironclad Brewery
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Send comments and tips to Benjamin Schachtman at [email protected], @pcdben on Twitter, and (910) 538-2001.
