VentureSouth

03/29/2026

VentureSouth Piedmont sought, and found, some outliers this week — one of the goals of early stage investing :)

08/15/2025

Our partnership with Vicinity Ventures brings together the region’s leading angel network and a dynamic investment platform built to help more people access high-quality opportunities.

🔗 Learn more about the partnership and what’s ahead on our blog: https://www.venturesouth.vc/resources/venturesouth-and-vicinity-capital-join-forces-to-transform-local-investing

07/18/2025

Thinking about angel investing through your IRA?

For the right investor, it might be the perfect fit. Here’s why:

✅ Tax-efficient growth
✅ Untapped capital, ready to work
✅ Long-term timeline that matches startup cycles

If you’re already investing in early-stage companies, or thinking about it, your IRA could be doing more than just sitting there.

Want to join a group that supports new and experienced angel investors alike? Visit our membership page at

07/14/2025

Spring Recap: Over $200k deployed, strategic follow-ons, and exciting exits.

From medtech to fintech to publishing, our investors are helping founders move faster and smarter—right where it matters most.

Take a closer look at what we’ve accomplished these past few months on our blog:

➡️ April recap - https://www.venturesouth.vc/resources/april-2025-monthly-recap

➡️ May recap - https://www.venturesouth.vc/resources/may-2025-monthly-recap

07/05/2025

Do angel investors back people or ideas?

The answer may surprise you, especially if you're a founder refining your pitch or an investor fine-tuning your thesis.

In this episode from our podcast Venture In The South, Paul Clark and John Osborne dive into what really matters when evaluating a startup: traction, team, or total addressable market?

Watch now to hear how early-stage investors weigh people vs. ideas—and why the best investments often come down to timing, trust, and a whole lot of nuance.

👉 Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzyXut9TrW8

In this week's episode of Venture in the South, we analyze a recent proposition that - angel investors and venture capitalists "do the same deals"- and there...

07/02/2025

Wondering how $10 billion in federal capital could impact your startup or portfolio?

SSBCI 2.0 is making a major difference for early-stage investors and founders in the Southeast.

Check out our blog post for what it means, what’s next, and how to get involved. 👉 https://www.venturesouth.vc/resources/ssbci-the-10b-opportunity-most-investors-and-startups-dont-know-about

Learn how SSBCI funding creates new opportunities for early-stage investors, especially across the Southeast.

06/16/2025

Yesterday, our CEO Charles J. Kropke took the stage at the VentureSouth Spring Summit in Charleston, SC alongside our friends at Vicinity to present a unique opportunity: the chance to own not just a piece of the historic Mandalay, but a stake in our company and its bold vision — transforming a storied past into a visionary future.

Thank you to all attendees + Vicinity Capital and VentureSouth for having us aboard. ⛵️💫

Discover how you can claim your stake in maritime history — and what's ahead: https://marketplace.vicinitycapital.com/offers/69

05/09/2025

In this essential read, Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann uncovers six common patterns behind startup failures — from false starts and speed traps to bad partnerships and over-ambitious scaling. 📉 https://amzn.to/449F1CE

Whether you're a founder, investor, or innovation leader, this book offers practical frameworks to recognize risks early and build smarter, stronger ventures.

Want even deeper insights? 🎙️ Listen to our conversations with Tom Eisenmann himself on Venture in the South:

Dive into the six failure patterns in episode 60: https://bit.ly/44emEfP

Listen to strategies for proactively reducing failure risk (plus how AI is reshaping founder support) in episode 161: https://bit.ly/4cTw82s

05/08/2025

✏️ : Practice to a neutral audience.

See if you are effectively conveying this story to someone hearing about your business for the first time, and particularly people with no business experience, and no existing expertise to fill in the gaps. Are you making this simple enough that anyone could get excited enough to say “this is worth learning more about”?

05/07/2025

April was busy and rewarding for VentureSouth! 💚 Here’s an April 2025 recap to give you a peek into what we’ve been working on:

VentureSouth is an early-stage venture firm that provides capital and expertise to Southeastern startups through our angel investment network and funds.

05/05/2025

🎙️ In this episode of Venture in the South, we sit down with Kathy Meis, CEO of Bublish, Inc., to explore how AI is transforming publishing and why self-publishing platforms are growing up to 3x faster than traditional publishing. 📚✨

Tune in to hear how they're putting creators back in control. 🎧

S4: E168 The Weekly Update and an interview with Kathy Meis, CEO of Bublish, an AI enabled publishing platform that is growing 3x traditional publishing. She tells the story of Bublish democratizing content publishing by giving creators control of...