Mentor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Brock Busby shares how a life-changing moment in Times Square fuels his passion for empowering WNC founders.
After 22 years in NYC’s fast-paced tech scene, Brock Busby thought he knew what success looked like. He’d built products for Nike, Google, and HBO, and scaled his own gaming platform to 30 million users. But one night in Times Square changed everything he thought he understood about entrepreneurship.
Early in his startup journey, his company sponsored a gaming event in Times Square. As Brock walked through the audience introducing himself, something incredible happened: users of the platform jumped up to hug him, thanked him for helping them connect with others to play their favorite games, and asked for selfies and autographs.
“These weren’t just casual users,” he says. “I had genuinely impacted their lives, helping them form lifelong friendships both online and offline.”
As he left the event and walked down the street, someone ran up behind him, calling his name. A young gamer had literally chased him out of the venue and down the street—“like I was the prettiest girl in the bar,” Brock laughs, just to get a selfie and autograph. “Not because I was famous, but because our platform had genuinely helped him connect with other gamers and find his community.”
That’s when Brock understood something deeper: Great products don’t just solve problems—they light people up. They create moments of genuine human connection that people want to celebrate.
When Brock moved to Asheville in 2023, he discovered something equally exciting: the incredible entrepreneurial potential in Western North Carolina. At Hatch Innovation Hub’s recent Hatch This competition, he mentored the winning team, Upkeeper. “They didn’t just have a great idea,” Brock says. “They had that rare combination of problem-solving clarity and genuine care for their users.”
That’s exactly why Brock is thrilled to be part of Hatch’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program—and why he’ll be at our next Pitch Party in Sylva, mentoring founders and sharing hard-earned insights from a global tech career.
“Whether you’re a student with a wild idea, a woman entrepreneur breaking barriers, or someone in a rural community who thinks ‘startups aren’t for people like me,’ I’m here to help you build something that makes people chase you down the street (metaphorically speaking). Let’s create products that genuinely light people up together.” – Brock Busby
With mentors like Brock Busby leading the way, Hatch’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence program is igniting the kind of innovation that turns ideas into impact—right here in Western North Carolina.