The biggest gap in the Wilmington ecosystem is the lack of venture capital. The Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington (NEW) has a solution at its next event: A top 50 venture fund.

NEW has pulled off some special events in its eight years, but now: Revolution Capital is based in DC and is managed by Steve Case, the founder of AOL. The Rise of the Rest Fund is part of Revolution Capital. David Hall, the managing director of the Rise of the Rest Fund, will be NEW’s guest speaker.

This is a $150 million fund. The Rise of the Rest movement is a bus tour of second-tier cities that are outside of Silicon Valley, Boston and New York City. The Rise of the Rest is also the name of the book by Steve Case.

In 2015, NEW’s Jim Roberts begged the Rise of the Rest tour to come to Wilmington when they toured from Richmond, Durham, Charleston and Atlanta to New Orleans. He even sat next to Steve Case at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin and met with the lead organizer of the tour. He also met David Hall at the Triangle Startup Week and with persistent follow-ups, he agreed to visit and speak in Wilmington.

Roberts’ persistence has paid off for local entrepreneurs’ benefit. Not only will David Hall speak at the event, but Gary Bredow of the national PBS TV show START UP has agreed to be the moderator or narrator of a Riverside Chat with Hall. He will be visiting from Detroit, Michigan. You may remember START UP filmed five episodes in Wilmington, and the show was nominated for three Emmy awards.

Please join NEW for this special event. It’s expecting a huge crowd.