American Technology Venture Lab (ATVL)

The mission of ATVL is to enable the younger generation to thrive in their hometowns by fostering a vibrant environment where their talents, passions, and ambitions intersect with local opportunities. We aim to empower our children and grandchildren to access high-paying careers and superior benefits within their communities, eliminating the need to relocate for success.

ATVL is a nonprofit organization that delivers a next generation objectives based mentoring and educational program for scalable, early stage, science and technology based ventures.  

 Growing Scalable Science & Technology Ventures is Difficult

A group of volunteers have been working for several months to bring together the inaugural cadre season for ATVL. We have been preparing for the 2023-2024 season that will start on December 1st, 2023 and continue on January 26th, March 22nd, and May 17th, 2024. In order to launch ATVL, we created a website at www.americantechnologyventurelab.org where ventures can apply and others may contact us. On October 3rd, 2023 we issued our press release announcing the inaugural season to be hosted at the George Dean Johnson Junior College of Business and Economics at USC Upstate in Spartanburg, SC. (https://americantechnologyventurelab.org/blog/) Shortly after the new dean, Jeffrey Stinson arrived at "The George", we began regular meetings to establish a memorandum of understanding for using the school facilities on Friday when they do not hold classes as well as working with professors & students to help us prepare and manage the details of implementing the program.

We can expect that a number of ventures will apply through the website and a focus of activity will be to categorize and evaluate the applications which may come from the information, life sciences, transportation, or materials technology categories; and include a wide range of applications from commerce, advance manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, medical devices, software solutions, block chain, robotics and artificial intelligence representing a range of priorities of economic development for the region.

In order to assemble an excellent mentoring team for the inaugural cohort, we are reaching out to successful entrepreneurs; subject matter experts in marketing, finance, and technology; angel & venture capital investors; and corporate executives. We have been asking potential mentors we know to recommend others they know and are asking potential mentors we don't know to contact us through our website so that we can arrange an interview to evaluate if they would be consistent with our cadre requirements. These mentors will be asked to attend 4 one-day sessions for the full day and after each session to provide four hours of mentoring to ventures they choose during the session. Most mentors will usually find one to three ventures that can both be helped by the mentor's experience and those they find interesting.  

Successful programs like ATVL have helped scalable ventures successfully raise substantial capital to support their growth. These rapidly growing high tech companies create a large number of high paying jobs, do significant business with local suppliers, increase retail and restaurant sales, and contribute to the overall growth of the regional economy.  

Programs to Mentor and Educate Founders are Expensive

Members of our team are reaching out to corporate, philanthropic, & economic development stakeholders in the Upstate SC to request sponsorship. We're asking these sponsors to contact us through our website so that we can schedule meetings with them and explore how their contribution can best be utilized to implement our cadre for this year.

In order to build a broad base of support for a sustainable entrepreneurial development activity, we are also reaching out to the broader community to help us raise $25,000 this month. We know there is power in numbers and a large number of small contributions can make a big impact:

$ 25 from 1000 people
$ 50 from 500 people
$100 from 250 people
$250 from 100 people

Now that we all know the math, we want to ask for your help to reach our goal.

All proceeds will be used to pay the expenses of the program. 

ATVL was formed as a South Carolina nonprofit organization in July 2023 and filed for our 501(c)3 status which is expected in October from the IRS.  For contributions of $500 or more we will be happy to provide a tax exempt donation letter for your records.

Please make your contribution now & share this information with your friends and pray for our success.

Thank you for your generosity in supporting this entrepreneurial endeavor to inspire & mentor new ventures in the Upstate region. Our success will help create thousands of high-paid high technology jobs for our children and grandchildren. Please feel free to contact us if you have additional questions or if you feel we could benefit from your experience.