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impact.
Dan Roselli and Sara Garces Roselli founded Packard Place in 2010, and was created to serve as a hub for like-minded entrepreneurs sharing skills and business opportunities in Charlotte. It was one of the first entrepreneurial and co-working hubs in the nation. While Packard Place sold in 2021 it remains a community center at the heart of the city for entrepreneurial activity. To this day it still provides access to technology, education and assistance to help businesses and startups design, build, market and deliver innovation.
one of the first.
3,000
community events
1,200
jobs created
200
international entrepreneurs
$1 Billion
in venture capital
traditionally underrepresented founders.
As one of the few majority female and Latina owned entrepreneurship centers and accelerators in the country we prioritize supporting and elevating traditionally underrepresented Founders. We define innovation as the pathway to bettering our communities, our businesses and our livelihoods. True innovation can only occur when diversity of thought and perspective are a part of the process. We believe that the entrepreneurs coming through our accelerator should mirror the diversity in the communities that their innovations will impact. That is why we are devoted to empowering and increasing diversity within the fintech and insurtech industry. Over 51% of our startups are Founders of color or female Founders.
Each cohort, we partner with a corporate sponsor to bring at least one early-stage TURF Founder into our accelerator program. We provide full access to our program and network with no equity cost to the company. It is our hypothesis that if we provide these early-stage companies with the right resources and introduce them to the right folks, we can give them the growth opportunities they need to move further down the pipeline, and we can begin seeing later-stage tech companies that are a positive representation of diversity.
strength in numbers.
We do not operate in a vacuum. Our work is only as strong as the ecosystem we've built. Partnerships are an integral part of our work and an integral part of success.