I, Jim R. Roberts, am the founder of NEW and have worked in entrepreneur development for 20 years in North Carolina while working in Charlotte, Asheville, Durham and Wilmington.

In the last seven years in Wilmington, NC, I have :

-started the UNC Wilmington Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) as Founding Executive Director

-restarted the Carolina Connect Conference from my work in Asheville. In September 2014, the conference was known as Coastal Connect (now known as Cucalorus Connect)

-started the Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington NC (NEW) in 2015

-started the Wilmington Angels for Local Entrepreneurs (WALE) in November 2015

-raised the funding and led the expansion of Bunker Labs into Wilmington in 2016 to help the local military veterans who want to become entrepreneurs and hire additional veterans

-served on the original committee for 1 Million Cups Wilmington (2020)

-serves on meaningful statewide committees to represent Wilmington such as CED for conferences, the awards committee for NC Tech Association and NC IDEA grant committees

-recruited two FREE SBIR grant full day seminars from the First Flight Venture Center in Durham to come to Wilmington

And now the founder of 91OMG.biz

And YES I have proof of all of this.