ACCELERATE!

In the fall of 2007, the Greenville Chamber’s Advantage Greenville program commissioned Clemson University to create an Economic Scorecard to analyze how the Greenville area is doing relative to competing communities across the U.S. (Click HERE to view the Regional Economic Scorecard.)

According to the results of the Scorecard, for twenty years Greenville outperformed the U.S. in income growth and saw the quality of life of our citizens rise steadily. However, for nine consecutive years, income growth in Greenville lagged the rest of the country and we found ourselves back to 1986 performance levels. This unprecedented decline resulted in a loss of over $1.3 billion in spendable income in Greenville County every year. That is a staggering amount of lost income; one which if regained would impact every business and household in the area.

Numerous studies of our economy have taken place in recent years and all point toward the same conclusion – to compete in today’s global marketplace, Greenville must retool and expand its efforts for growing our local economy. Results-driven development strategies proven successful in other peer communities are needed to improve our competitiveness and regain our economic momentum.

A RESULTS-DRIVEN PLAN
The Greenville Chamber designed a program of work to ACCELERATE! economic growth in our community. This program will:

Produce significant, tangible return-on-investment
Leverage growth strategies proven successful in other communities
Augment the traditional business recruiting efforts of our development allies

ACCELERATE! emphasizes three high-leverage areas:

Business Conditions
World-Class Talent
High-Impact Startup

KEEPING SCORE

The Greenville Chamber has continued to engage economic researchers at Clemson University to provide an evaluation of our region’s economic health and actionable information about the drivers of economic growth. The Regional Economic Scorecard is an objective report on the area's economic vitality. The Scorecard, funded by ACCELERATE!, is distributed throughout the Upstate SC region each year.

The Scorecard focuses on four main drivers of wealth creation:

Human Capital
Entrepreneurial Environment
Innovative Activity
Industry Strength

ACCELERATE! Funded Strategies

Innovative, fast growth companies offer our region a great opportunity for creating high wage jobs whilegenerating wealth via business ownership. NEXT is the internationally-recognized economic development program dedicated to growing and attracting high impact, entrepreneurial companies in the Greenville/Upstate SC area. ACCELERATE! funds the full-time operations of NEXT.

What’s NEXT?
NEXT provides support to 91 high-growth companies across the Upstate (as of August 2012).

What’s the economic impact of NEXT?
In 2011, NEXT companies impacted the local economy with 530 full-time jobs and over $40 million in payroll.

What does NEXT do for high-impact companies?
NEXT provides direct CEO services, builds infrastructure, and attracts new firms to the area.

NEXT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Created the award-winning NEXT Innovation Center, the Upstate’s first technology accelerator. The facility is 100% occupied as of Fall 2011.

Incubated the Upstate Carolina Angel Network

Launched the NEXT Intern Program, attracting over 300 student applicants in year one

Supported the launch of Iron Yard Labs (formerly The Next Big Thing) to attract new firms

NEW NEXT PROJECTS

Develop additional NEXT facilities for software, manufacturing, and biomedical

Attract additional seed and venture capital

Create an executive talent pool of seasoned executives, board members, and investors

Improve the commercialization of intellectual property into new companies

CATALYTIC PROJECTS

In times of economic development specialization, ACCELERATE! serves the critical role of identifying and
addressing strategic opportunities or threats to our regional economy that cut across traditional organizations and roles. In this capacity, ACCELERATE! supported the recruitment of Southwest Airlines and led the creation of a strategic plan for NEXT.

MINORITY BUSINESS ACCELERATOR

To positively impact per capita income and job creation in Greenville, ACCELERATE! is one of several partners funding the launch of the Minority Business Accelerator program. The concept was conceived to grow the economic success of disadvantaged organizations through business development services, mentoring, and access to large corporations for partnership opportunities. The Greenville Chamber conducted a national search and added to the staff a full-time Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion to oversee development and implementation of this program.

TALENT RECRUITING

The successful Think Greenville marketing piece was created to help companies of all types attract new talent to Greenville and Upstate SC. It’s the only publication of its kind, targeted specifically at encouraging talented individuals, couples, and families to move here. ACCELERATE! funded Think Greenville and provides resources for high impact talent recruiting projects across the community.

For more information on ACCELERATE! or to find out how you can invest, please contact John Moore, Executive Vice President at the Greenville Chamber at jmoore@greenvillechamber.org or 864-239-3719.