It’s All Heart (my friends)

Sep 28

One year ago this week, our city and our team were devastated by Hurricane Helene. Most of us had damaged homes, the roads in and out of our neighborhoods and across the city were blocked by downed trees and power lines. We went weeks without power, and with limited access to food, gas, and other basic supplies. Every family learned how to use chainsaws, and communities banded together to help each other clean up, and most of all, actually get to know one another.

**@EP_AIA**

**Some of my neighbors have Trump signs. Some of my neighbors have Harris signs. Today, we all worked together to clear fallen trees from** **#hurricanehelene** **#augustaga**

There is nothing like an emergency to bring people together. To be honest, it mirrors how I became an ecosystem builder to begin with. My story centers on seeking both community and economic recovery after the Great Recession and the Occupy Movement. That was when I migrated from Silicon Valley back to my hometown.

Within every struggle we face is the germination of the next wave of transformation. Regardless of where we place blame for polarization, declining civility, and rising violence in our country (and the world), we can agree that we are caught in an intense struggle.

With that great struggle, the optimist, nay the ecosystem builder, within me sees great opportunity to germinate something new. Our world needs our optimism and our collaboration more than at any other point in my lifetime.

Collectively, we’ve been plowing the field of ecosystem building for 10-20 years (even longer for the earliest pioneers). The seeds for bringing the world together have been planted through our shared determination to create robust systems of support and capital for entrepreneurs of all types. But we’ve been tilling soil in a world so focused on threats and security that it has forgotten how to trust.

Entrepreneurship, both big and small, is the path to empowering the many. By scaling the ability of people to own their own means to make a living, we offer people the equity in our shared future; equity essential for a representative democratic republic.

It is through this lens that I humbly invite you to Augusta, a region steeped in history, tradition, and culture. A place of beauty and struggle, wealth and poverty.

The 2025 Startup Champions Network Fall Summit is an Open Invitation.

Our challenges may feel unique, but they share common roots. I can’t wait to share what we’ve learned and to have an honest conversation about how we can all work together to Scale Trust and germinate the next great societal transformation.