K’Leasha Liles
palmettoreport@gmail.com

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — Rock Hill offers a number of resources to encourage entrepreneurship in technology, as many people are interested in launching their own startup and becoming their own boss.

For example, there is the Technology Incubator at Knowledge Park and the York County Regional Chamber of Commerce, which are both available to help entrepreneurs successfully launch their ideas.

“Tech entrepreneurship has definitely grown in our community, being that there are a number of resources we have available for entrepreneurs,” said Bernice Huskins, associate vice president of the York County Regional Chamber.

“The number of tech entrepreneurs are still growing each day, because they are utilizing the resources along with the programs we have that help identify entrepreneurs and startups,” said Huskins, who was a guest on the Palmetto Report.

Last month, York County hosted its first Techstars Startup Weekend, Nov. 1-3, which was intended to help budding entrepreneurs connect with others in the community to gain feedback about their ideas.

“We had about 40 people sign-up for the weekend, to come out and spend all weekend building an idea, a brand new idea that they came up with on Friday night. They had 54 hours then they presented them to a panel of judges,” said Huskins.

The startup weekend was similar to the 1 Million Cups program, founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2012, which is designed to educate, engage and inspire entrepreneurs across the country.

The program is available in more than 200 communities in the U.S., according to the group’s website, including York County, Anderson, Charleston, Columbia, Greenville and Spartanburg in South Carolina.

Every Wednesday, at 1 Million Cups meetings across the country, potential entrepreneurs present their ideas over a cup of coffee, in order to gain support, encouragement and feedback.

“Our entrepreneurship community, in my opinion, is diverse on so many spectrums, on the ideas and what industries they fall in, on the ethnic backgrounds and on the age,” said Huskins.