Greenville-based NEXT announced Jan. 12 the creation of a $6 million Founders Fund to provide crucial capital to help local startups grow, with Safe Helipad as the first company to receive funding.
Safe Helipad has developed a software platform to help manage helipads, helidecks and vertiports for safety and compliance and was founded by Greenville native Michael Middleton.
A helipad is a single landing area for helicopters; a heliport is a small airport reserved for use by helicopters and other vehicle lift aircraft; and a vertiport is an airport for vertical takeoff vehicles (think the jets that rise up vertically before flying off, “Top Gun”-style).
NEXT board chairman Scott Millwood said the fund represents capital from about 40 local entrepreneurs who, beyond providing funding, will serve as limited partners who will provide the growing companies with a wide variety of expertise and hands-on guidance.
Middleton said the Founders Fund investment in his company is emblematic of the welcoming and supportive network he has found in Greenville since retiring from the Marine Corps in 2013.
As a Greenville native and a graduate of Greenville High and Clemson University, Middleton said he and his family knew the welcome they would receive in moving back to his hometown but was unsure if it had the resources and network necessary to grow his young company.
He said he initially traveled the country looking for funding and, more importantly, the expertise to grow his company, only to find himself back in Greenville working with NEXT to meet those very needs.
“It’s not money I need; it’s people like these folks who understand how to grow a business the right way and bring on the right people,” Middleton said.
NEXT CEO Eric Weissman said the Founders Fund aims to invest in about eight companies over the next 18 months. The successful entrepreneurs who make up the fund’s partners will work with those companies to help them grow to the point where they are ready to pursue series B investors.
The NEXT Founders Fund will be run by General Partners Scott Millwood and Shay Houser, co-founders of Deal Strategies. Both are entrepreneurs who have successfully founded/co-founded and exited high-growth companies in Greenville.
“As current board chair and a co-founder of NEXT, I’ve had a front row seat at the growth of our ecosystem,” Millwood said. “The NEXT Founders Fund addresses a gap I’ve seen where scaling companies need more than just money to hit the next stage.”
