How exactly can Greenville measure the success of its entrepreneurial ecosystem?
That was the question driving a panel about innovation held as a kickoff to the 2023 City Council retreat, which looked at ways Greenville might measure benchmarks and better support small businesses, especially in regard to the city’s draft for its new development code.
Moderated by Rhonda Rawlings, community director of Mill Village Ministries, the panelists represented the various working parts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem: Carlos Phillips, president and CEO of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce; Lelia King, executive director of Build Carolina; Eric Weissmann, executive director of NEXT Upstate; and Bryan Davis, executive director of Institute for Innovation Entrepreneurship at Furman University.
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Each panelist began the discussion by describing his or her definition of success and how their organization defines it, noting that success is a broad word determined differently depending on goals or mission statements.
“Our vision is of a globally competitive, upstate economy where businesses succeed, and people prosper,” Phillips said.
The panelists discussed how Greenville should measure success within the entrepreneurial and innovation sectors.
“Part of our specialty is that people want to be here. And so, how are leveraging the entrepreneurial talent that wants to move here and be here to grow new ventures?” Davis said.
Other topics of discussion included creating space for remote work such as coworking spaces, and building affordable houses that include secondary dwellings for home offices, and engaging the workforce, not just founders or co-founders of businesses.
“I think that we’ve got to expose folks to what the opportunities are and what they look like and make it a little more tangible, and then help them figure out what path to take to get them,” King said.
At the end of the discussion, City Council members gave comments and also asked questions about how the council and city could better support entrepreneurs. Mayor Knox White honed in on Phillips’ comment about marketing what the city has but also what the city hopes to be.
“It wasn’t that long ago that we had this crazy idea that we can have tourism in Greenville,” White said.
Column: How to plant the seeds for entrepreneurs
