Asheville, NC: Where Entrepreneurs Excel

Meet some of the fastest-growing startups in Asheville and find out what's behind their success.

By Brianna Williams on August 9, 2023

Asheville is known for its beautiful landscape, quaint, yet bustling downtown, and countless breweries — but what else puts this scenic North Carolina city on the map? Its vibrant startup culture.

Not only is the city one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in the nation, according to a 2022 analysis by LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team, but it also fosters a supportive and growing entrepreneurial community.

“Asheville is really, really into the person that’s living out their dreams, and you can do that here,” says J. Hackett, co-founder of local startup Grind AVL.

Every year, the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce celebrates this strong startup community with the Venture 15 Awards, highlighting 15 of the fastest-growing local startups. From Hackett’s history-making coffee shop (which provides a lot more than a cup of joe) to a modernized bathhouse, meet the top five fastest-growing startups started and based in Asheville.

Grind AVL

Making history as the first Black-owned business to be recognized at the Venture 15 Awards, Grind came in as the No. 1 fastest-growing startup in Asheville based on its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 194.31%.

The coffee shop located in the River Arts District has more to offer beyond lattes and espresso — it’s also a coworking and event space, an incubator for minority-owned businesses and the organization behind GrindFest, an annual celebration of local Black businesses and entrepreneurship. Coffee is simply the businesses’ connector, Hackett says.

“Maybe other people do coffee better than us, but nobody connects better than us,” Hackett says.

Nomadic Marketing + Software

This digital marketing and custom software agency based in Asheville is no stranger to growth — the startup was the top fastest-growing business in Asheville in both 2020 and 2021. Founded by a trio with backgrounds in marketing, managing and engineering, Nomadic serves companies well beyond its North Carolina base in the logistics, manufacturing, health care, financial and e-commerce spaces. The startup provides a variety of marketing and software services, from branding and social media marketing to UX or mobile app development.

Lantern Health

This local direct primary care facility — a membership model wherein patients pay a monthly fee for comprehensive services — boasted a CAGR of 81.93% in 2022, with its nontraditional financial model.

Depending on a patient’s age and any potential partners, dependents or employers, monthly costs at Lantern Health can range from $60-$160 and include comprehensive primary care (including wellness, prevention, health coaching, chronic disease management, acute visits and care for occasional sick days) in addition to unlimited in-person or virtual visits, up to 10 common lab tests, five X-rays, five in-office procedures, and routine flu and tetanus vaccinations.

Founder Dr. Ben Aiken says the business’ unique model allows for more flexibility in care delivery and more time to develop stronger patient relationships.

Asheville Adventure Co.

What do you get when you pair Asheville’s affinity for the outdoors with passionate, local entrepreneurs? Asheville Adventure Co., a startup that builds small, unique outdoor excursions crafted by locals. The business works to make planning excursions easy by providing equipment, transportation, and, most importantly, a unique experience you won’t find elsewhere — from eBike mountain tours that explore the city’s scenery to a tubing adventure floating through Asheville’s arts district.

According to the startup’s website, every tour is customized based on the group’s interests, so you can be sure you’re getting a one-of-a-kind experience.

Sauna House

Touting a 73.81% CAGR at the Venture 15 Awards, Sauna House has grown since it was highlighted in The New York Times back in 2020. Now, the locally based bathhouse provides franchising opportunities, with additional locations in Raleigh, Charlotte, Greenville and Atlanta coming soon, according to the company’s website.

If you’re interested in checking it out for yourself, you can enjoy the mix of ancient bathing rituals and modern health science with Sauna House’s infrared sauna, public bathhouse, or a private hot-cold-relax room for those who want the space to themselves.

Q&A: A Recipe for Success in Asheville

Laura Shafferman is the founder of Legally Addictive Foods, a woman-owned sweet and salty packaged cookie maker that was recognized as one of fastest-growing startups in Asheville at the Chamber’s 2022 Venture 15 Awards. Shafferman started her business in a studio apartment in New York City before making the move to Asheville to expand.

What do you think contributed to your growth?
We launched new products, which is always going to contribute to the growth of your business, and we expanded into retailers in additional territories. We started working with a sales rep agency, and as soon as we moved [to Asheville], we kind of flipped the switch and got into hundreds of retailers in the Southeast. So, I think increasing the number of retailers with our move here, and our Asheville presence, in a way, contributed.

What is your favorite product that you sell?
I like this one — Everything — it’s everything that’s in an everything bagel. There’s a story behind this; this is, like, our third product that we made. We used to work in a shared kitchen space when we first started, and I had a friend who was a pastry chef who was making croissants with cream cheese on the inside and everything bagel seasoning on the outside. I thought, “Everything bagel seasoning on cookies — what would that taste like?” Because it’s garlic and onion and poppy seed, and it sounds like it’s gonna be really weird. It worked, and it’s amazing. Everybody who tries them is like, “I have never had anything like this in my life. I just did not know that you could enjoy garlic and chocolate.”

What else should people know about your business?
We found a really great team here in Asheville. We got really lucky. We just felt a lot of support and a lot of good feelings from the community here. If I start to say “good vibes” and all that, I’m going to sound way too “Asheville” — I’m not there yet. I’m still a New Yorker.