Last week, founders, manufacturers, investors, corporate leaders, and ecosystem partners gathered in Greenville for Innovation Exchange, a new event hosted by NextGEN focused on strengthening connections between startups and enterprise companies.

Some business ideas come from a gap in the market. Chelsea West’s came from a gap
in human connection. Chelsea has been working deeply in supply chain and manufacturing planning, managing inventory, forecasting demand, and solving complex logistics problems across a national network of warehouses, when she noticed the overlap in the need for
automation and technology.

There’s something special about walking into GROK and immediately spotting familiar faces.
Not just one or two, but dozens. Founders, operators, creatives, technologists. People from the StartupGVL community who are all building, questioning, experimenting, and showing up.