The mission of RootLevel Labs is to create software intensive new ventures which will result in a financial return to participants and investors as well as create jobs in the Triad area of North Carolina. These new ventures are based both on internal ideas and projects at RootLevel Labs and ideas from other entrepreneurs.

Creating a new company is a difficult and getting a young company funded is even more difficult. Increasingly investors want to see a fully developed product and even customer revenue before they make an investment. This creates a significant dilemma for an entrepreneur.  How can one get to proof of concept without funding. This dilemma is often called the “valley of death” and is illustrated in the diagram below.

RootLevel Labs assists in bridging the “valley of death” by providing resources, assistance, and guidance for the early stage entrepreneur.  By providing assistance with development, management, and marketing, RootLevel Labs can create a sustainable company very cost effectively. In addition the success rate is much higher through sharing of resources, talent, and experience. Several other efforts similar to RootLevel Labs are being developed in other parts of the world with excellent results. The most well known and pioneering effort is Y-Combinator which provided some of the strategic elements in the design of Rootlevel Labs.  Y-Combinator startups have an 84% success rate.