2025 NC SBIR Showcase & Launch: How to “Catch an Investor”
Highlighting Success, Sharing Best Practices
September 19, 2025 | 1:00 PM to 5:30 PM | Hybrid
Location: In person at First Flight or via Zoom.
Join us for a dynamic, half-day event celebrating North Carolina’s innovation ecosystem and equipping startups for success!
NC SBIR Celebration Showcase
Spotlighting the state’s top SBIR/STTR-winning companies, this event highlights innovation in action with:
Company showcases
Launch: How to “Catch an Investor”
A must-attend investor panel featuring seasoned funders who’ve coached and evaluated hundreds of startups. You’ll learn:How to navigate funding sources through different R&D and commercialization stages
Key trade-offs and timing considerations
What makes an investor take interest—and say yes
Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, researcher, or innovation advocate, this event is your opportunity to connect, learn, and celebrate groundbreaking work happening across North Carolina.Promoted statewide through our ecosystem partner network.
Grant Description:
o Launch - How to “Catch an Investor”: Panel of experienced investors who have evaluated and coached hundreds of companies. Topics ranged from sources of funding that may be accessed to enhance startup's ability to progress through different stages of research, development, and commercialization plus the advantages and consequences of each funding source and factors that impact the best choices. This is a hybrid event.
SBIR Showcase / SBTDC Business of Innovation - NC SBIR Celebration Summit – Highlighting Success, Sharing Best Practices: A half day event featuring SBIR/STTR winning companies, education sessions, and stakeholder presentations typically held in September. This is a hybrid event and will be promoted across the State of North Carolina through our network of ecosystem partners.
We will be announcing grant awards from NC Idea and Wells Fargo!
Thank you to our sponsor!
PROGRAM BACKGROUND
First Flight Venture Center, North Carolina’s premier science and technology incubator, is hosting a half-day celebration to highlight the achievements of NC companies in the non-dilutive funding arena through the US Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs - America’s largest seed fund.
First Flight has since 2018, implemented the SBA’s Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program and this 2024 SBIR Showcase is part of the FAST program designed to support a diverse portfolio of startups and small businesses across technology areas and markets to stimulate technological innovation. It will bring together members of the innovation ecosystem to focus on efforts to increase the number of competitive proposals and winning SBIR grants to advance the work of early stage, science-focused companies.