Two decades ago, Wilmington’s tech scene had a much different landscape.
“There was not much advocacy before 2013, not many people in the room,” said Jim Roberts, founder of Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington (NEW) and Wilmington Angels for Local Entrepreneurs (WALE).
2013 marked the start of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, headed at the time by Roberts.
Fast forward to 2025, and Wilmington is landing on national and global lists of rising tech ecosystems because of strides made to foster that ecosystem, officials say.
Although Heather McWhorter, current director of UNCW’s CIE, joined the university after the CIE was born, she said she feels the center had a very important role as a catalyst for the local tech scene’s evolution because of its two-part mission of supporting high-impact startups and supporting the ecosystem as a whole.
“We’re making sure that all entrepreneurs and our ecosystem partners succeed, and so that dual mission as an anchor institution from UNCW, that we’re in it for the long game – I feel that that vision from the university has helped our region,” McWhorter said.
She said she thinks the current state of Wilmington’s tech environment is “incredible,” noting trends such as the growth of the area’s fintech firms and the migration of remote workers who have chosen to stay.
“I feel like the culture of our community is shifting into that space, and I’m seeing a lot of people with tech startups, with early-stage tech startups,” McWhorter said. “I think as a region, we still have a lot of work to do to get our entrepreneurs ready and scaled, but we’re definitely on the right path.”
One facet of the work that’s left to do is finding additional investors, Roberts and McWhorter said.
Roberts’ organizations and events are important because they help startups develop relationships with investors early, McWhorter said.
“Usually, the earlier the better to develop the relationship and to get feedback on the startups,” she said.
McWhorter would like to see more pre-accelerator programs, like the Idea Test Lab launched by the CIE a year ago, in the Wilmington area to help spark tech ideas.
“Pre-accelerators are early-stage programs that are cohort-based, so everybody’s in the same stage, they’re supporting each other, and they help to validate an idea and find that early path to market and determine the ... minimum viable product (MVP) to launch to get that early customer feedback,” she said.
Richard Stroupe of Cape Fear Ventures offers a two-day boot camp to help serve an accelerator role, Roberts said. The boot camp can help entrepreneurs recognize their weaknesses and fill in knowledge gaps.
Other “tough love” events, Roberts said, can prepare entrepreneurs to meet with investors by providing constructive feedback.
He said he hopes that more retired entrepreneurs moving to Wilmington will play an active role in mentoring startups in the area.
“It is important to find people who were entrepreneurs in the past who are trying to plug into and feel a sense of community. We want to welcome them, not just for business, but socially, which is an important piece of it,” Roberts said.
Live Oak Bank has played a pivotal role in the growth, Roberts said. He said many Live Oak employees have now become entrepreneurs themselves, including one of the 2025 Coastal Entrepreneur Award Technology winners, Lumos Technologies Inc., run by Brett Caines, Stephen Hayes and Youri Nelson, all former Live Oak employees.
This “flywheel effect,” the momentum that occurs when small wins accumulate over time, creating continued growth and improvement, is what Roberts attributes to the growth of smaller startups that are a “healthy addition” to the ecosystem, he said.
McWhorter’s focus in recent years has included an emphasis on the Blue Economy, a concept that involves the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth.
“My dream is to build a blue tech hub. I think some of the other things are happening naturally, with biotech, health tech and fintech. Blue tech, I think, will be our big play for the region, because we have an incredible entrepreneurial community. We all love the ocean here. We’re all familiar with the problems of living along the coast, and that’s really the differentiator for our region,” she said. “That’s why CIE has shifted its focus the last couple years into this space and running things like our Idea Test Lab for blue tech and climate tech to really nurture these early-stage ideas, to grow some of the ideas into that space.”
Through NEW, Roberts works to support entrepreneurs through monthly events, mentoring, investor preparation, communications, advocacy and removing barriers.
“Wilmington is becoming a model,” he said. “There has been such a big change that happened so fast, just within the last 10 to 12 years, and we have to be in the rooms where decisions are made.”
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