- Beacon
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- Beacon #03
What is Beacon?
Beacon is a free, founder-led community dedicated to helping West Virginia founders get customers, raise capital, and build community.
Our goal is to give founders a white-glove experience through founder dinners, practical webinars, and curated startup events designed to help them move faster and scale.
By founders, for founders 🤝
Recent Beacon Events 🚀
Over the past few months, we've brought together founders, builders, students, and investors from across West Virginia through a series of community events.
Some recent highlights include:
Founder Dinner – Charleston
A small, intimate dinner bringing together founders and operators to share what they’re building and learn from each other.
West Virginia Tech Meetup – Morgantown
A gathering of founders, builders, and investors from across the state to connect, share ideas, and talk startups. Co-sponsored by LG Nova, TechConnect WV, and Vantage Ventures.
Vantage Nights at the Beacon House
Casual evenings where founders and builders in the current Vantage cohort come together to hear from a guest presenter, share what they’re working on, and connect over food and conversation.
📸 Photos from recent events below
Upcoming Events 📆
Here’s what’s coming up for startup events across West Virginia:
Local’s Launchpad 🚀 (In Person - Today, March 12)
​Local’s Launchpad is a high-energy, community-driven startup showcase designed to spotlight early-stage companies and connect them with the people and resources that help ideas grow. (Event is at capacity, click here to learn more and attend a future Local’s Launchpad!)
Beacon Webinar with Rishi Taparia 🛠️ (Virtual - Thursday, March 26)
Rishi is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Garuda Ventures a $31M early-stage fund. He was also an early investor in Canva and Airbase and will be joining Beacon for an honest conversation about building and raising capital. (registration link)
Bridging Innovation Week 🌉 (In Person - April 27 - May 1 )
​Bridging Innovation Week is the state’s premier entrepreneurship event, bringing together founders, business owners, investors, and entrepreneur-support organizations from across West Virginia (registration link) During the week, Beacon will also be hosting a couple events:
Beacon & Vantage Ventures AI Hackathon – A fast-paced build session where participants will use AI tools to create and demo a product in just a few hours. $2k cash prize (registration link)
Beacon After Hours – A relaxed gathering for founders, builders, and investors to connect over food, drinks, and startup conversations after the conference. (registration link)
Interested in attending a future Beacon event? Check out our events page here.
Let us know if there’s an event we should add in the future :)
Founder Spotlight 🚀
Every issue, we’ll spotlight a founder with West Virginia roots who’s building something ambitious.
Jesse Wisnewski is a current resident of Charleston, WV, and is the founder & CEO of EverRaise.
EverRaise is building an AI-powered engagement platform that helps relationship-driven organizations stay connected with their supporters. Using AI voice, text, and email combined with a simple campaign builder, EverRaise enables nonprofits, universities, associations, and campaigns to engage thousands of supporters without expanding already stretched teams.
Jesse came up with the idea after years working in marketing leadership across B2B software and FinTech, and later leading growth and fundraising for an eight-figure global nonprofit. During a conversation with a nonprofit leader responsible for donor engagement, he heard something that stuck with him: “We have tens of thousands of supporters, and most of them never hear from us.”
The problem wasn’t a lack of mission, it was scale. Small teams were responsible for staying connected with thousands of supporters who had already donated and believed in the cause. Over time, many simply drifted away because consistent outreach was nearly impossible. That realization is what led Jesse to start EverRaise.
When asked what he’s learned building in West Virginia, Jesse shared: “You don’t have to leave West Virginia to build something meaningful. You can build where you are and let the work speak for itself.”
👉 Follow their journey on LinkedIn.
In The Trenches 🛠️
Our next “In the Trenches” webinar is coming up on March 26th with Rishi Taparia, Co-Founder and General Partner at Garuda Ventures.
Garuda Ventures is an early-stage venture firm deploying capital from a $31M fund and backing founders building the next generation of AI and enterprise software companies.
Over the course of his career, Rishi has invested early in companies like Canva and Airbase and has also spent time operating inside venture-backed startups, giving him a firsthand perspective on what it takes to both build and fund breakout companies from the earliest stages.
During the session, Rishi will join founders for an honest conversation about the realities of building startups, raising capital, and what early-stage investors are really looking for.
If you want practical insights from someone who spends his time backing early-stage founders, you won’t want to miss this one..
Register for the webinar here!