Nearly a hundred years ago members of the Pinehurst Country Club could sit on the veranda and see in the distance the construction of a barn. This barn was constructed to be the site of the Sandhills Fair, at the time one of the largest events in the region.

Over the years, the Fair Barn, has held a number of other events in Pinehurst and Tuesday night it held the formal launch of Moore Forward – the entrepreneur hub for the Moore County region.

(Moore Forward was featured in WRAL Tech Wirehere last week.)

Christopher Gergen, from Forward Communities, early in the night took the stage and spoke about how he’s been to several communities in North Carolina that had expressed an interest in developing their own entrepreneur ecosystem, but from Christopher’s perspective Moore County had a different dynamic.

In just a short time we went from a concept being discussed across a table amongst a few dreamers to having roughly 250 people huddled inside the Fair Barn all sharing a belief that we could build an entrepreneur ecosystem in small town, rural North Carolina.

Later in the evening John Skvarla, local entrepreneur and appointee to Gov. Pat McCrory’s Cabinet, said that the unique thing about Pinehurst (and Moore County) was that most of us moved here because we wanted to be here. That most of us didn’t have some external force acting on us (think job transfer) that brought us to this area.

I thought about that and it reminded me of an article I just read in Forbes. The article talked about a group of individuals that have been organizing a series of regular entrepreneur conferences called the Summit Series.

The organizers of the Summit Series, Summit Group, just purchased Powder Mountain in Utah. Their reason for buying a ski slope? Grand plans of turning it into a community of entrepreneurs, luminaries, and change agents.

A place that was made up of people that wanted to be there, who would feed on the ecosystem they were creating, to generate new ideas, collaborations, startups – in short to change the world for the better one innovation at a time.

There I was in a large space with 250 other individuals all here with a shared interest. Sure, we didn’t have Tim Ferris or Peter Thiel living in our community, but we certainly did have a unique quality.

We have quality people from all walks of life (and skill sets) that have decided to call Moore County home. Quality people that share ownership of the idea that this is not only a great place to live, but a place where we can foster real innovation in the local community and have an impact not only here, but around the state.

That…is Moore Forward. In the coming weeks we will be unveiling our co-working space, growing our Entrepreneurs Club and Mentor Council, and continue to build the relationships that will make this a long-term part of Moore County’s future.

We are eager to work in tandem with our partners at Forward Communities and the rest of the startup scene in making North Carolina a better place to live and work.

For more information about Moore Forward visit http://www.mooreforward.org.

Board of Advisors

Members of the Board of Advisors include:

  • David Christaldi – President, Advanced Perfusion Care, Inc.
  • Pat Corso – Executive Director, Moore County Partners in Progress
  • Patrick Coughlin – President, Moore County Chamber
  • John Dempsey – President, Sandhills Community College
  • Michael Griffin, CFO, Moore County Public Schools
  • Anita Holt – President & CEO, St. Joseph of the Pines
  • Dave Kilarski – President & CEO, FirstHealth
  • Andi Korte – Dean of Continuing Education, Sandhills Community College
  • Tom McPherson – Serial Entrepreneur
  • John Parker – Executive Director, Good Work
  • Susan Purser – Retired Superintendent, Moore County Public Schools
  • Jeremy Reynolds – Co-Founder, Tangram Media, Inc.
  • Aaron Spence – Superintendent, Moore County Public Schools
  • Matt West – Founder, Intangibles, LLC
  • Fenton Wilkinson – Executive Director, Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative
  • David Woronoff – Publisher, The Pilot

Editor’s note: Jeremy Reynolds is acting co-director of Moore Forward and is a member of the Board of Advisors. He’s also an entrepreneur and pilot in the Air Force Reserve. You can reach Jeremy at jeremy@mooreforward.org