Wilmington’s entrepreneurial ecosystem will be getting plenty of attention during the Cucalorus Connect conference, which is running in conjunction with the city’s well-known film festival next week. Tech veteran Tom Looney, who has worked at Microsoft, Oracle and beside Steve Jobs at NeXT and is among the leaders for the Cucalorus event, talked about the conference and the bustling startup scene with The Skinny.

Cucalorus comes from the Greek word kukaloris [“the dance of the shadows”} and refers to a film set apparatus placed in front of a light source to create a dappled lighting effect on a subject or background. This is the 23rd year annual film festival event, and the tech conference runs Nov. 9-10.

Since moving to Wilmington in 2000, Looney has become a tireless advocate for Wilmington and its emerging startup scene.

Our Q&A:

  • What do you and your organizers hope to accomplish with Cucalorus Connect?

The first thing we wanted to accomplish with Connect is to build upon the incredible work already done around the Wilmington region, and the true pioneers who launched Connect as a tech and innovation conference a few years back. Names like Brett Martin, Joe Finley, Sean Ahlum (the Castle Branch and TekMountain team), along with Diane Durance, Laura Brogdon-Primavera and of course, Jim Roberts come especially to mind.

  • What are your own connections to the Wilmington area? Why did you decide to get involved in helping Wilmington’s tech sector?

Like many folks from around the country who in-migrated to Wilmington from around the U.S., I first visited family who was living here since the mid-1980’s. When we moved here in 2000, my company Active Software had gone public in 1999, then merged with another publicly traded company. My wife and I felt it was a great time to move to Wilmington, because our sons were only entering pre-K and 2nd grade. It’s harder to uproot kids when they’re older.

Soon after I moved to Wilmington, I met Dr. Steve Harper from the UNCW Cameron School of Business. I always remind Dr. Harper that when we met, he somehow knew more about Steve Jobs than I did … and I had worked for the man for six years! Steve is one of this year’s Connect Emergent Leadership Fellows honorees. He has been a force behind Entrepreneurship at UNCW long before it was “the next big thing” in university business schools.

Then, with another professor at UNCW, Jonathan Rowe, we launched the Entrepreneurship Center within the biz school. Like the current Dean Rob Burris, his predecessor Dean Larry Clark was a visionary, and wanted to work with people who saw things not yet written on the page.

Frankly, I felt, “Wow, this area really has the kind of leadership that could support an innovation economy identity!” The wheels roll fast in some parts, and drag behind in other areas.

But overall, we’re emerging as one of the state’s growth regions, and that is due to the rapid growth of our traded-sector innovation companies, and the infrastructure it needs to grow and prosper.

  • Wilmington’s startup scene has grown rapidly over the past decade. What are the factors contributing to the growth?

Well, I mentioned some of the key factors already. But you know, first you have to acknowledge that Wilmington was once the biggest city in the state. And as well, some great entrepreneurs who built some amazing traded sector companies here.

I think the best model for what is happening with this growth of our 21st century innovation sector, is the story of PPD and Dr. Fred Eshleman. PPD was a startup here in Wilmington in 1985. Today, it has 20,000 employees doing business in 47 countries around the world. A few thousand are located here at their beautiful headquarters on the Cape Fear River downtown’s northern edge.

To me, PPD is the tip of the spear to the next wave of traded sector innovation companies starting up new companies, creating new industry clusters, and eventually putting Wilmington into the conversation as the perfect “Goldilocks” locale—not too big, not too small—for people seeking the envious combination of our hard to match natural place-based coastal assets, our always widening quality of life amenities, and as well, this surge in human capital that is now attracting not only pioneering startup entrepreneurs, but also existing companies looking to be part of a region with all of the attractive parts we have in place.

And I would be remiss to point out that it remains true that to win in the innovation economy, a region needs to attract the very special few who break out the way Dr. Eshelman did with PPD. Today, the CRO industry cluster started by PPD now numbers multiple CRO related businesses, and thousands of skilled employees in well-paying jobs. And because those jobs are traded sector (meaning they could be located anywhere because most of their customers are elsewhere, yet they chose to be based HERE!)

I think Live Oak Bank’s Chip Mahan is the breakout star of the past decade. Live Oak is now publicly traded, and has spun off another FinTech company, nCino, which is a rising star in and of itself. Mr. Mahan and his strong team have just announced Apirture, the 3rd company spun up in the FinTech industry cluster now taking root here. It’s actually like a lab for how to build an innovation-led economic identity for your region, thanks to some amazing entrepreneurs!

Coming in Part Two on Monday: Much more about Wilmington’s emergence as a startup hub.