The founder journey continues to reach new levels for two of Winston Start resident companies, Village Juice & Kitchen and Wellnecity as they earn Summit level status at the Winston-Salem based accelerator. As a way to meet their companies where they are and provide the resources they need at each stage, Winston Starts offers three stages of development for startup companies: Basecamp, Ascent and Summit.
Basecamp is for early-stage companies still refining their value proposition and in the process of proving customer validation that need to develop the core processes necessary to scale.
The next stage, Ascent, is for companies that have clearly demonstrated customer validation; have commenced meaningful, repeatable, and growing revenue; and are well on their way to establishing the processes, infrastructure and team to be venture capital ready.
The highest level, the Summit stage, is for rapidly growing, sophisticated companies with fully-realized business models and financials. They have leadership maturity, reliable revenue streams and a fully scalable business model.
Joining Winston Starts in May of 2019, Village Juice & Kitchen is a plant-forward restaurant committed to bringing healthy, delicious food to everyone. Village Juice & Kitchen was formed in 2014, selling cold-pressed juices out of a tent at the local farmers’ market. It has since grown to eight full-service restaurant locations, each with a full, creative menu of fresh, scratch-made foods consisting of salads, grain bowls, plant-based smoothies, toasts, raw desserts and much more.
“Being part of Winston Starts has allowed us to learn from mentors who have achieved some of the same goals we’ve identified for our business,” commented Village Juice and Kitchen’s founder Nate Atkinson. “Our primary mission is to bring healthy, delicious food to as many people as possible and Winston Starts has enabled us to accelerate that mission at a pace that would have otherwise taken us years to achieve.”
Wellnecity® is a venture capital-backed innovator reshaping healthcare in the US and was accepted into the Winston Starts program in February of 2018. The company uses technology to help self-insured employers manage the rising costs of healthcare benefits while improving outcomes for employees. This is accomplished by creating an information and execution hub to provide a simple way for employers and their consultants to manage their health plans like a Fortune 100 company.
“Winston-Starts has provided immense energy for our startup effort. Access to community leaders for testing ideas, experienced vendors who provide essential services, flexible space and peers wrestling with similar problems has dramatically improved our success and probability of long-term viability,” said John Quinn, founder and CEO of Wellnecity.
This exciting honor of meeting this new milestone as a Summit Stage company at Winston Starts is met with the anticipation of what these incredibly talented businesses and their founders will accomplish next.
“Both Village Juice & Kitchen and Wellnecity have leaned into the Winston Salem startup ecosystem resources and are now generating consistent revenue growth and creating jobs in the local community,” said Stan Parker, President of Winston Starts. “We are very proud of both companies and their significant accomplishments.”