2025 Fall ECOSYSTEM BUILDER SUMMIT
Where: Augusta, Georgoa
When: November 5-7
there will be a Pre-Summit Golf outing on TUesday, November 4
Hosted By: Make Startups
event info | AGENDA | hosts | TICKETS | TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATIONS
Startup Champions Network Summits
Twice annually, Startup Champion Network members meet in-person to connect, share knowledge/experiences and take a deep, behind-the-scenes dive into the local host ecosystem. This personal interaction is a critical part of the member value-proposition as well as an important commitment all members make -- to celebrate each other.
These 2.5 day intimate gatherings bring together the nation's top ecosystem builders and national ecosystem support organizations to convene conversations, gain insight from real world case studies, and explore and experience new communities, against the backdrops of some of the nation's top emerging ecosystems. Summits address topics most relevant-to and of interest-to members, such as inclusive entrepreneurship, fostering collaboration, engaging and empowering under-represented populations, and more.
About Augusta
Augusta is a city of paradox and potential—a place where world-class golf meets deep-seated inequity, and where the rhythms of James Brown still echo through a downtown once federally designated as a slum. It’s a government town brimming with entrepreneurial ambition, home to U.S. Army Cyber Command, the 4th largest public medical school in the country, and a nuclear corridor that spans national defense and ecological innovation.
As a midsize city straddling the Georgia-South Carolina border, Augusta embodies the opportunities and tensions of building collaborative, inclusive ecosystems in complex contexts. At this SCN Augusta, we’ll explore what it means to cultivate entrepreneurship in a place defined by extremes—where the Augusta National coexists with neighborhoods in need of reinvestment, and where federal dollars and grassroots dreams intermingle.
This gathering is an open invitation dive deep into:
Cross-border collaboration in regional ecosystem building
Applied research in founder support and community-centered investment
Workforce development as a catalyst for economic mobility
Creating a shared, nonpartisan language for policy change
Sustaining ecosystem organizations while growing the next generation of leaders
The Augusta Summit theme, Open Invitations, plays off the historic Augusta National "Invitational". We'll kick it off with a pre-summit golf day at one of Augusta's gorgeous municipal courses and invite attendees to face hard questions—how do you invite a city to believe in itself again? How do you rebuild trust in historically excluded communities? How do you balance the legacy of segregation and poverty with a vision of collective prosperity?
In the spirit of open invitation, we’re also putting out a Call for Speakers—inviting other ecosystems to bring their lessons, breakthroughs, and failures to the table. If you’re navigating similar terrain, we want to learn with you.
Join us in Augusta to shape the future of ecosystem building—rooted in place, propelled by people, and wide open to possibility.
Your Summit Hosts
Make Startups believes ecosystem building isn’t about gatekeeping—it’s about inviting. Founded on the belief that every community deserves access to the resources, advocacy, and education needed to thrive, Make Startups has become a regional catalyst for inclusive innovation.
From helping founders navigate their first pitch to shaping statewide policy conversations, Make Startups operates at every level to support entrepreneurship. Whether it’s equipping local leaders with research-backed strategies or mentoring the next generation of ecosystem builders, their work is grounded in a simple idea: entrepreneurship should be accessible to everyone. Read more about their work here.
Grace Belangia and Eric Parker, Co-Founders, Make Startups
SCN Host Members
Eric Parker is the co-founder of theClubhou.se, an innovation hub in Augusta, Georgia where he supports all kinds of ecosystem activities. He’s also the co-founder and CEO of Make Startups. With a trophy case that includes guiding 500+ businesses with makestartups.org, and wrangling $15m in investments, he's the Swiss Army knife of leadership. With a background in architecture and a love of the outdoors, Eric has plenty of things for attendees to see and experience.
Grace Belangia is the co-founder of theClubhou.se and Make Startups, working side by side with Eric on entrepreneur training and policy initiatives. As Make Startups CMO, she’s as savvy in a boardroom as she is on a farm. Yep, outside her marketing magic, she runs a farm and vineyard retreat tucked away in Sonoma—complete with sunflowers! Born in Silicon Valley and honed at UCLA, she bridges corporates and communities with flair. As a co-founder of Make Startups and a UC Berkeley professor, she's shaping the minds of future innovators. Dive deeper, and you'll find her stints as a travel writer, digital media correspondent, robotics educator, and TEDx maestro!
Purchase Tickets
*Please note that you must purchase each ticket individually, so we can properly collect all attendee data per ticket.
Super Early Bird tickets (Close june 31)
Super Early Bird Member: $249
Super Early Bird Non-Member: $349
Early Bird tickets (July 1 - september 12)
Early Bird Member: $299
Early Bird Non-Member: $399
Regular Tickets (september 13 - november 4)
Member: $399
Non-Member: $499
Travel & Accommodations
Getting to Augusta
Traveling to Augusta is easy, whether you're flying in or hitting the road. The Augusta Regional Airport (AGS) offers daily flights from major hubs like Atlanta, Charlotte, and Dallas. For more flight options, consider flying into Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE)—just an hour away—or Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), a two-hour drive that connects to destinations across the globe.
Driving in? Augusta sits conveniently at the crossroads of I-20 and U.S. Highway 25, making it accessible from across the Southeast. Whether you're coming from Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah, or Charlotte, you’ll find yourself in the heart of Augusta in just a few hours.
Once you arrive, rideshares, rental cars, and local transit make it easy to get around.
Lodging
Stay Tuned
Rides & Rooms Spreadsheet
Every Summit, we create a spreadsheet for attendees to coordinate rides and room sharing. If you're looking to share a hotel room or airbnb with a large group, this is a great place to start. If you want to carpool from the airport or hope some kind soul will give you a ride, this is the place to do it! While we don't link this spreadsheet to the public website, it is sent via email upon summit registration. For this Summit, the Rides & Rooms spreadsheet is going to be VERY important! We encourage all to take advantage of it - both folks coming form out of town and folks who live in key cities who are willing to pick people up and take them with you.
Summit Sponsors
