Last night, I received the honor of being named Entrepreneur of the Year by Virginia's Region 2000 Technology Council. It is a great honor, and I credit the Sharptop Company team and their tireless efforts to bring top quality software development to Central Virginia.
Of course, none of this would be possible without my beautiful wife, Laura, who supports my demanding schedule while heroically managing our household of six biological, adopted, and foster children. If anyone deserves an award, it’s her.
A large part of the reason we received this award is due to our participation in Lynchburg’s designation as a White House TechHire community. Our team has been doing amazing work to support this initiative, but the Lynchburg EDA is really the organization that made TechHire possible. It was last year’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Dustin Slightham, who recognized the congruence of our abilities and the EDA’s mission and connected our organizations. I’ll always be thankful for his friendship and the connections he’s made for us.
I’m actually very surprised at the award. The other finalist, Stefanie Prokity of Successful Innovations, is doing amazing work to increase family engagement in education that deserves to be commended.
I’m really excited about the future of Lynchburg and Sharptop. The White House predicts that America will have a deficit of 1 million software jobs by 2020, and traditional four year institutions simply cannot keep up with the demand. Lynchburg is a city with a blue collar ethos, which will be an amazing asset as a new class of blue collar technologists rises up to meet this national challenge. Lynchburg’s work ethic combined with innovative education methods and fearless leadership truly makes Lynchburg the City of Opportunity.