Category: The South
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When Two Worlds Collide: A CEOs View from Inside the Acquisition
DIG SOUTH caught up this week with Joe Floyd, CEO and founder of InsureSign, hot on the heels of the company’s acquisition by Formstack (a past DIG SOUTH Tech Summit sponsor and speaker). Floyd launched the super-simple, e-signature solution in 2012 after working for nearly 20 years in the insurance industry. Today, InsureSign is trusted…
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Revamping the Travel Experience Using Recommendations: Q&A with Landon Sanford, CEO, Rayka
Along his journeys, traveling enthusiast Landon Sanford often found standard review platforms uninspired, inaccurate or worse. To solve the problem he founded Rayka, a travel app that utilizes personal recommendations rather than anonymous online reviews to enhance travel experiences. Sanford founded Rayka following graduation from Vanderbilt in 2017. He has since expanded the team to…
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Partnership, Growth and the Future of Mobility: Q&A with Gotcha Founder Sean Flood
If you ever have the chance to chat with Sean Flood, you’ll quickly understand why his company is so successful. His passion is palpable; his energy is contagious; his hustle is impressive. Sean is the CEO and Founder of Gotcha, an electric Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) company headquartered in Charleston. In an industry that’s getting increasingly crowded,…
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The Future of Fintech has Arrived in Charlotte with Fintech Generations
Show you the money?! Indeed they will. Today marks the opening of Fintech Generations, one of the nation’s largest fintech conferences taking place in Charlotte, NC, June 11-13. Fintech Generations is supported by DIG SOUTH Tech Summit sponsor, ETC member and all-around, good friend Dan Roselli, the co-founder and Managing Director of Queen City Fintech,…
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Top Trends in Cybersecurity: Q&A with Brad Alexander, VP & CTO at Immedion
Perhaps you read about cybersecurity in the news, use two-factor authentication, and store your logins on a password manager app. But as the technology landscape changes at warp speed, do you really know the ins and outs of today’s digital security threats? During this week’s DIG SOUTH Tech Summit, you’ll have the chance to learn…
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The State of M&A in the South: Q&A with J.D. Moriarty, CFO at LendingTree
It’s not often that you get to meet a C-Suite exec from one of the largest financial technology companies in the nation, but this week, attendees at the DIG SOUTH Tech Summit will have that one-in-a-lifetime opportunity. J.D. Moriarty is the CFO at Lending Tree, one of the first and largest online lending platforms. In…
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Building Scalable Startups in the Southeast with Monique Villa, Founder of ModernCapital
In just over a year since moving to Nashville from Los Angeles, Monique Villa has already become a vocal champion for the Southeast. And it’s not just because of the Southern hospitality — she’s a firm believer in our region’s potential to breed high-growth startups and vibrant entrepreneurial communities. As a veteran company-builder and investor,…
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How to Power Up Your Business with AI: Q&A with botkeeper Founder Enrico Palmerino
Worried that bots are taking our jobs? Enrico Palmerino says you’ve got nothing to fear. An entrepreneur and investor with an impressive background in automation, machine learning, and accounting, he argues that bots are creating new opportunities for human talent and paving the way to make businesses more scalable and profitable. While in college, Enrico…
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Meet the Woman Driving Entrepreneurial Collaboration in Atlanta: Q&A with Burunda Prince
If you want to connect with the Atlanta startup community, start by meeting Burunda Prince. This powerhouse leader is the Managing Director of The Farm, a Boomtown startup accelerator backed by Comcast NBCUniversal. With Burunda at the helm, The Farm has grown into a hub for collaboration in Atlanta’s startup ecosystem, and a diverse innovation…
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Startup Advice from the 38th Black Woman to Ever Close a $1M Round
Q&A with Ashlee Ammons, President & Co-Founder of Mixtroz Ashlee Ammons spent many years working as an Events Producer for A-Listers like Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jay-Z, but we’d argue she’s on an A-List of her own. In 2018, she and her mother Kerry Schrader joined Birmingham, Alabama’s Velocity Accelerator, starred in an episode…
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How to Change the World Without Breaking All the Rules: Q&A with Greenbrier Co-Founder Matt McKenna & Lime Exec Taylor Bennett
Whether crafting outreach for major brands or leading political campaigns for U.S. senators, Matt McKenna and Taylor Bennett have equally impressive backgrounds in communications and public affairs. For over seven years, Matt served as spokesperson and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. He also ran communications for Uber North America and…
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Is Your Company Evolving Its Digital Business Model Or Headed For Extinction?
One thing that’s clear in today’s marketplace: Consumers want fast, user-friendly, convenient and customized service–and if your company isn’t offering it, they’ll go somewhere else to find it, fast. According to IDG’s 2018 State of Digital Business Transformation, 89 percent of organizations plan to adopt a digital-first business strategy to enhance customer experience and drive revenue, but…
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Still Not the Person You Always Wanted to Be? Three Steps to Get You There in 2019.
Improving your life starts with changing your focus, priorities and execution. We all aspire to be better people, yet too many of us hesitate to roll up our sleeves and tackle the roadblocks that prevent us from achieving that goal. We stay in our comfort zones, fall back on old habits and question why our life isn’t improving.…
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How to Perfect Your Pitch with Trey Scott, Founder of WatchPitch
What’s your story? Q&A series, part 3 In the mountains of North Carolina, a former journalist turned tech founder is reinventing the way startups and investors interact. After many years working as a CBS News reporter, Trey left the newsroom to follow his passion for sustainability, founding Solar Spirals, a social enterprise that managed renewable…
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Purpose-Driven PR with Elke Martin of The Brandware Group
What’s your story? Q&A series, part 2 Elke Martin is not your average agency exec. She’s given away pink Vespa scooters, hosted gourmet dinners prepared by an award-winning chef and a Porsche race car driver, and put journalists “behind-the-wheel” of a high-tech racing simulator in Los Angeles. Since launching The Brandware Group, an Atlanta-based boutique…
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Venture For America CEO Amy Nelson to Headline Startup Day 2018
Venture For America CEO Amy Nelson will be the featured speaker for Innov865 Week’s Startup Day 2018. Venture For America is a nonprofit fellowship program that connects recent college graduates with jobs at startups, forging a community of entrepreneurs committed to building companies that matter and creating economic opportunity in American cities. “Knoxville has a…
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How One U.S. Student is Fueling a Movement Against Drug-facilitated Sexual Assault
It’s a problem that’s been under-reported, under-addressed and under-combatted. Until now. The #MeToo social movement has made international headlines following the 2017 Harvey Weinstein scandal. As a result, public awareness about sexual violence is at an all-time high. One facet of that crime is drug-facilitated assaults. With more than 50 total accusers, Bill Cosby was convicted of…
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Live from DIG on the 1/2 Shell: How StoragePug is Disrupting the Undisrupted
Matt Huddleston, Tommy Nguyen and Richard Jeffords of StoragePug join host Joel Sadler at DIG on the 1/2 Shell to share how they’re bringing tech to the self storage market. Each team member explains their role (and how each piece fits together to form the perfect whole that keeps things running!), attending trade shows to…
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Live from DIG on the 1/2 Shell: Double Growth in Half the Time for Tech Teams with Carrie Jaquith of Lazard
From the Main Stage at DIG on the 1/2 Shell, Carrie Jaquith, VP, Digital Product Manager, Emerging Technology, Data & Analytics for Lazard shares how entrepreneurs and tech teams can double their growth in half the time by asking more questions and understanding your internal ecosystem. Catch a new episode of SOUTH POD every Tuesday night at…
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Why You Should Put People First, Even in a Growing Tech Business
Tech is built by people, for people, but it doesn’t feel that way sometimes. There’s been a lot of talk about this on the West Coast, and we feel it here in the South too. Privacy concerns with Facebook—and the recently shutdown Google+—have people asking questions like, “can we trust technology these days?” and “do…
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5 Tips for Growing A Technology Services Company into a Top-Ranked Brand
In the technology industry, professional services companies are often overlooked in comparison to SaaS or technology-platform companies, especially in the eyes of investors and public relations. This paradigm has always seemed odd to me. Of course, I understand why investors may seek out technology-based companies over service-based companies as the return on investment has the…
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What’s Your Story: Q&A with John Buzzell, President of YOU ARE HERE
Imagine walking into a cell phone store and, just as the tester ringtones begin to wear on your patience, transporting yourself to a virtual Caribbean cruise. Picture ditching online FAQs and learning how to use a new product with the help of a holographic mentor or a 3D mobile app instead. Or what if you…
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Live from DIG on the 1/2 Shell: The Future of Outsourcing with Andy Hilliard of Accelerance
From the main stage at DIG on the 1/2 Shell, Accelerance President Andy Hilliard shares how to vet and manage offshore tech talent. Interviewed by new South Pod co-host Joel Sadler, Andy relays inspired tales from his world travels and testifies that building an outsourced team doesn’t have to be bad, scary or overwhelming. Catch…
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What’s Your Story: Get to Know Laura Corder, TeamSC Office of Innovation
Laura Corder describes herself as a “motivated advocate for innovators in their relentless pursuit of transformational ideas.” In other words, if you’re curious about startups, job creation, and technology commercialization in South Carolina, Laura probably has the answer, the phone number, or the resource you need. As the Managing Director for the South Carolina Department…
