Part I: People

August 2015:  Google Startup Weekend 2015 was full of happy collisions, including that which brought former Procter and Gamble innovation executive, George Glackin, Troy Ball, founder of Troy and Sons Distillery, Chad Slagle, serial entrepreneur, Meg Ragland, founder of Plum Print, and Jon Jones, founder of Anthroware together.

In addition to sharing a history of entrepreneurship, these five shared an interest in helping other entrepreneurs succeed. They were discussing ways they could support Asheville’s founders when Troy had an idea.

September 2015: She approached her husband, Charlie Ball of Ball Properties about converting a building the two of them had purchased a year prior into an incubator for startups. Charlie was keen on the idea, so he worked with the group, which became a board, to draw up plans for what was originally called the Asheville Startup Factory.

December 2015: As a 4-phase, multi-year plan solidified, the board’s feelings towards the name they’d chosen wavered. “Startup Factory” was too cold and mechanical for what they aimed to build, so they ditched it in favor of something that had more of a pulse: Hatch.

Part II: Place

February 2015 – July 2015:  Phase one of Hatch’s construction began at 45 S. French Broad Avenue two months later. Once it was complete, the first three businesses to join the Hatch community moved in: Plum Print, Anthroware, and Mob Rocket.

September 2016: By the time phase two of Hatch’s construction began, the board had realized that what they were offering was more than just a place to work. It was a community — a space where founders could support each other and increase the odds of one another’s success.

December 2016: To amplify their impact, board members decided to offer high quality business development programs in addition to affordable space. They applied to become a non-profit educational foundation at the end of 2016.

May 2017 – August 2017:  That’s when Hatch’s growth really started to accelerate: In just four months, the organization received its 501c3 non profit status, opened its coworking space, and rolled out its first business development program: A Pitch Party.

Part III: Programming

November 2017: After successfully running a number of other, smaller programs, Hatch held it’s first BIG event. Hatch This challenged founders to build and pitch a business plan in one weekend. Its pace was breakneck, its energy electric, and its huge turnout totally unforeseen. 30 founders signed up to participate, signaling some expansion was in order.

November 2017 – July 2021: Over the next five years, the number of board members doubled and Hatch’s suite of programs solidified into four regular offerings: 1 Million Cups (weekly), Pitch Parties (monthly), Founder’s Roundtable (monthly), and Pressure Tests (rolling admissions).

The more entrepreneurs they served, the more insight Hatch board members gained into the unique challenges faced by founders in WNC. One of the most common? Our region’s entrepreneur support system, though robust, can be very challenging to navigate.

What WNC founders need is for all of the entrepreneur support organizations headquartered here to work together, as collaborators, rather than alone, in silos. They need a central, inclusive entry point through which they can access multiple channels of resources.

Part IV: Partnerships

August 2022 – Present:  In other words, WNC founders need an innovation hub. So that’s what we’ve become. We partnered with Venture Asheville, Black Wall Street, Mountain BizWorks, the NC Biotechnology Center, and Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation to bring all our business development resources together under one roof.

Now, the size of our roof is expanding from 12,000 square feet to 36,000 square feet. And it’s not the only thing that’s tripling.

By making programming and capital more accessible to founders in the coming years, Hatch and its partners aim to triple the revenue we empower founders to make, triple the number of high paying jobs we enable founders to create, and triple the investments we help founders secure.

We are committed to ensuring that this impact benefits ALL WNC founders, including and especially those whose backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, gender identities, orientations, zip codes, and religious views have been historically underrepresented in our region’s business sector.

We’re on a mission to make WNC a place where entrepreneurs can succeed and everyone can thrive.

Want to join us? Reach out to learn more about how you can get involved with the work we do, or donate to Hatch Innovation Hub.