BIRMINGHAM, AL (December 20, 2021) – Alabama Capital Network announced today it will assume oversight and operational responsibilities for the Birmingham Venture Club. Starting in 2022, Birmingham Venture Club (BVC) meetings and activities will continue moving forward as a functional project of Alabama Capital Network (ACN), while maintaining their distinct and unique membership base and focus. The two clubs determined in late 2021 that joining forces would enable both organizations to accelerate efforts to increase investment in early-stage startups across Alabama.
“The Birmingham Venture Club has been at the heart of our entrepreneurial ecosystem for more than three decades,” said James Childs, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Venture Club, “Our board unanimously determined that the opportunity to leverage the skills and experience of Josh and his team at ACN, especially in light of the strong strategic synergies that exist between the two organizations, makes this a compelling and natural progression of the club. We are certain ACN will be an excellent steward of the club and its preeminent Jemison Award.”
The Birmingham Venture Club has a rich thirty-year history of bringing together venture-minded individuals in the Birmingham community to connect and celebrate entrepreneurial ingenuity. This has been most widely recognized through their annual meeting and the Jemison Award that is given to a single outstanding entrepreneur each year. Alabama Capital Network has also created its own significant impact on the innovation ecosystem by connecting entrepreneurs to capital providers and helping them achieve the funding and support they need to scale.
“Both ACN and the Birmingham Venture Club have brought unique and necessary components to the venture ecosystem, and we saw the opportunity to join these organizations to accelerate our combined ability to grow Alabama’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by increasing access to capital,” said Joshua Jones, CEO of ACN. “In doing this, we also get the benefit of eliminated duplication of services and efforts, while still allowing each to serve its own unique mission and objective – venture inspiration, and venture funding, respectively.”
Each organization’s membership and events will stay distinct and maintain their unique focus areas, while some activities will include all members of the innovation community. ACN plans to continue to host the annual BVC meeting and to give out the Jemison Award, and will announce more details on the dates and format of that meeting in the coming months.
The bi-monthly lunches of the BVC will be phased out in favor of periodic meetings around key topics that engage, inspire, and educate members about early-stage investing and entrepreneurial keys to success. While membership and activities in each group will remain distinct, ACN staff will assume control of BVC operations and fold both organizations into a single non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization led by Joshua Jones, and governed by the ACN board of directors.
