Chris Heivly

Chris Heivly is a life-long entrepreneur, a multifaceted investor (angel, corporate VC and micro VC) and for the last 12+ years a start community builder and consultant. He has been dubbed the “The Startup Whisperer” due to his experiences with helping founders, investors and startup community enthusiasts create environments for success.

For over 30 years, Heivly has worked at the highest levels for some of the world’s most recognized brands, including co-founder of MapQuest, which was sold to AOL for $1.2 billion; Rand McNally, the world’s largest map publisher; and Accenture, the largest multinational management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company on the planet. He has also personally directed over $75 million in investment capital on behalf of these and other organizations.

Heivly currently serves as one of two managing directors of The Startup Factory, one of the largest seed investment firms in the Southeast. Under his leadership, the firm has made 35 investments in just four years in emerging technology companies.
After TSF, Chris joined Techstars, the world’s largest ecosystem that helps entrepreneurs build great businesses, to develop a new set of products and services focused on helping startup communities grow. This role leveraged Heivly’s experience in building the Raleigh/Durham ecosystem with the expertise of Brad Feld (Foundry Group, Startup Communities, The Startup Community Way) and the Techstars staff. Over the past five and a half years, Heivly created a team of 12, generated consulting engagements (3 months to 3 years), and materially changed entrepreneurship in under-developed cities (Ft Wayne, Indiana; Lima, Peru; Buffalo, New York; Okanagan, British Columbia; Taipei, Taiwan and many others).

Heivly has become a sought-after speaker and go-to source for media. He has been quoted in major national and international outlets such as Forbes, Inc., the Washington Post, TechCrunch, Crain’s Business Journal, Huffington Post, Tech Cocktail, and the Financial, and has appeared in major-market TV stations across the U.S. Because of his stature in the startup world, he was heavily featured in the documentary Startupland, which showcased the world’s most renowned entrepreneurs and startup experts. He is a contributing writer for Inc.com, the nation’s leading entrepreneurial magazine for entrepreneurs and business owners, and has a significant following for Heivly.com, his own highly respected blog that offers brutally authentic commentary on startups and the startup community.

His book, Build the Fort is about how to take the lessons you learned as a 10-year old and apply those lessons to starting anything. His book was inspired from a widely acclaimed TEDx talk in 2014. The book focuses on the months leading up to the decision to start a company and those first three critical months of getting your idea off the ground. His insights are being applied in multiple realms, from any individual with a dream, to startups and companies that aspire to be more innovative, to emerging entrepreneurial communities.

Today, Chris is semi-retired, and picks a handful of meaningful projects to get involved in every year. He produces and hosts a podcast, Your Startup Community with Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway and expects to release his 2nd book this year, Build The Fort: STARTUP COMMUNITY BUILDER, A Global Field Guide for how to get involved, create impact, fund and accelerate your entrepreneurial ecosystem.