Rotarians Josh Jones, Miller Girvin and Drew Honeycutt Discuss Innovation in Birmingham
Rotarians Josh Jones, Shegun Otulana, Miller Girvin and Drew Honeycutt with President Brenda Hackney
The Rotary Club of Birmingham recently welcomed Rotarians Josh Jones, Alabama Capital Network CEO; Miller Girvin, EDPA Executive VP for Innovation & Entrepreneurship; and Drew Honeycutt, Innovation Depot CEO, who presented a panel on the current state of innovation in Birmingham. They were introduced by Rotarian Shegun Otulana, Harmony Venture Labs Founder & CEO, and invited a group of local entrepreneurs to attend and interact with Rotarians.
The panelists discussed the ways their organizations are working to support growth in the region’s innovation ecosystem and how they help entrepreneurs turn promising ideas into successful companies.
Girvin shared how programs such as Alabama Launchpad provide grant funding to support startups and she discussed the Governor’s Innovation Commission, which evaluated entrepreneurial activity in the state and resulted in the creation of the Innovation Corporation.
“Watch that corporation and keep in touch with what they are doing because they are going to really be game changers and include a lot of statewide activity. I think it’s a really positive movement for the state of Alabama.”
Honeycutt detailed how Innovation Depot supports early-stage, high-growth companies by providing space for collaboration as well as programs to help them become successful and sustainable.
“Our whole goal is teaching, at the top of the funnel, more entrepreneurs how to take an idea and validate that there’s a business need for it,” Honeycutt said. “And then further down the funnel, is helping them with the topic-specific things they need to go accelerate the growth of their business.”
Jones explained the process of identifying investors and connecting them with entrepreneurs seeking to scale successful businesses with support to avoid pitfalls.
“We’ve been sort of mapping the state’s ecosystem because one of my beliefs has been we really need to do more cross-pollination,” Jones said. ”We’re going to start seeing more people come out of the gate, skipping a lot of the mistakes and the things that take early-stage entrepreneurs multiple years to figure out and wade through,” Jones said.
The panel identified priorities such as workforce development, retention of talent emerging from the state's colleges and universities, leveraging Birmingham as a great place to live and work and supporting businesses to grow and thrive in the area.
“That’s the whole goal,” Girvin said. “Taking young businesses or young people or both and helping them figure out from back of the napkin to raising capital what that continuum looks like and what kind of access they need and who they can talk to in this innovation ecosystem. Because we’re all team players and everybody is really willing to help everybody else out.”
