Events designed to spur entrepreneurship and business start-ups in Augusta and Aiken have begun. A series of workshops through Venture Lab Aiken are part of Startup Summer.
Make Startups, based in theClubhou.se at the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center (GCITC), joined with the Aiken Chamber of Commerce, Western SC, South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), and Magnate Angel Group.
The first Founders Friday workshop was titled Ideas Are Flimsy. Scalable Businesses Are Engineered.
“The workshop is really centered around the idea that most founders come to me and they say, ‘I have a great idea,’ and they haven’t thought yet about who’s actually going to pay for it,” Eric Parker, cofounder of Make Startups, explained for ABD. “So, we’re teaching them how to make sure that their idea is serving needs for customers at scale, so that they can be investable by venture capital.”
Parker said the workshops are to attract entrepreneurs and innovators. Anyone who has the ambition to do something big to sell locally and outside the region.
“We’re going to go through basic ideas around market research and unit economics, and we will give everybody an assessment of their business along with eight different aspects of their development,” he said.
In August 2025, the Aiken Chamber announced the Aiken Innovation Corridor. The 3.5-mile corridor is anchored by the Savannah River National Laboratory, USCA, Aiken Technical College, the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, and the SC National Guard’s Cyber Integration Center.
Jim Tunison, president and CEO of the chamber, said the series of workshops is a critical next step.
“This is where we’re bringing entrepreneurs together. We’re bringing the resources for them through programming and workshops and really trying to build that community here in Aiken,” he said. “Then bringing a key piece of it, which Eric has done a great job of, bringing those investors who would be interested in helping these folks really take their business to the next level again.”
Tunison said Aiken has a good combination of manufacturing and traditional small businesses, such as the mom and pop stores, restaurants, and retail. He believes that the missing part of the local economy is tech startups, the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“If we can figure this out and make it a repeatable process, I think this will help drive growth in our economy,” said Tunison. “I also view this as a retention strategy for these young folks who are looking to get into this and start their own company. To make them realize you don’t have to go to San Francisco, you don’t have to go to Boston, or Austin. It’s right here in the CSRA.”
Additional workshops are scheduled for April 17 and 24, leading up to a Cinco de Mayo pitch contest on May fifth.
“That’s really for us to see who we can get into this, the next phase, which is the three-month-long accelerator program, where you really kind of drill down on the nuts and bolts of your business and see how we can help you take it to the next level,” Tunison said. “After that, there will be a showcase for these entrepreneurs who go through that accelerator, and then also a chance for founders and funder meetups.”
Information and registration for the next events are at:
https://cofounderos.com/apply/zNypuVJ/Venture-Lab-Aiken/Aiken-Startup-Virtual-Incubator.
Learn more about the Aiken Innovation Corridor at: www.aicorridor.net/home.
