JB Woodruff joins the UpTech team, expanding accelerator’s capacity
COVINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 31, 2014) – UpTech, Northern Kentucky’s business accelerator specializing in supporting informatics startups, has hired an entrepreneur-in-residence (EiR) to support its third class of startup companies, UpTech III.
The position will complement UpTech’s existing pool of professional support network partners in the accounting, banking, legal, and marketing fields, as well as its cadre of mentors who are partnered with accepted startups.
JB Woodruff, who founded his business, JB Woodruff Design in 2009, will serve as UpTech’s first entrepreneur-in-residence. He will work at UpTech’s offices in Covington, and his role will include helping the accelerator’s startups define and manage company milestones, auditing their progress in the program, providing lean startup education, and advising company founders as needed.
“I caught the entrepreneurial bug a few years ago,” Woodruff said. “Through my experiences with startups here in Cincinnati, as well as in Africa, I have solidified my belief that everyone should have the opportunity to start their own business and be exposed to the principles that modern startups are using. I look forward to sharing my expertise with the UpTech portfolio.”
Beyond his own consulting practice, Woodruff served as entrepreneur-in-residence with the 88mph accelerator in Nairobi, Kenya, and Cape Town, South Africa, in 2012 and 2013. In 2013 he also helped start two Cincinnati startups, Araytha and CampFinder.co, and began mentoring with UpTech and the iNKUbator. Through his firm he lends expertise to clients in several areas, including business model development, brand definition, and marketing material creation.
“We are thrilled to have JB join our team and become a formal part of our program,” said Amanda Greenwell, UpTech’s program director. “He has served as a mentor to UpTech companies in the past, and his experiences working with startups in an accelerator environment will prove a great asset to our program and portfolio.”
Woodruff began his role as UpTech’s entrepreneur-in-residence in mid-October 2014 and will continue in this capacity for the duration of UpTech III, which ends in February 2015. Prior to this, he was introduced to the UpTech III class as the instructor of a four-week lean startup method course at the start of the program in early September 2014.
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