South Carolina Business Review

New Start-up Factory Launches in Upstate

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Mike Switzer

  South Carolina's start-up community is far behind other leading states like California, Texas, and Massachusetts but that's not to say that we're not trying real hard.  Quite regularly we are hearing about more and more entrepreneurial efforts, resources, and support organizations sprouting up all around our state.  Our next guest is part of one of these new propagations.

Mike Switzer interviews Jason Premo, owner of Premo Ventures, a private equity firm based in Greenville, South Carolina and who is also leading the Upstate location of a new, innovative “start-up factory” called The Founder Institute.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.