If you want your startup business to succeed, you’re going to have to get farther with less money before being positioned to attract major venture investment. That’s according to Matt Hottle, a successful serial entrepreneur who now advises and mentors startups as co-founder and partner of Redhawk Advisory.
“Concept-stage founders need to know what’s ahead of them from a funding perspective,” said Hottle, who had just stepped off the stage after conducting a session on that subject at the Innovate Alabama Entrepreneurship Hackathon 2025-2026, held January 29 at Fairway Social, near Birmingham’s Railroad Park and Regions Field.
“I hope I provided a good idea of how venture capital works,” said Hottle. “It’s important that they recognize when they are reaching a stage where they should become interested in that.”
Presented by Innovate Alabama and The Alabama Collective, in partnership with the Alabama Power Foundation, the all-day Hackathon completed a process that started last fall, with a challenge to students at Alabama’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to propose responsible, AI-driven solutions to public safety issues affecting Alabamians. The event featured pitches from 10 finalists selected from a highly competitive pool of 33 applicants.
