About The Speaker

Jeffrey Kaplan

Jeffrey is the Director of Venture Asheville, an organization which serves as a catalyst for high-growth startups by building entrepreneurs and getting startups funded. Under Jeffrey’s leadership, startups in Venture Asheville’s portfolio created over 285 new jobs, raised over $30M investment dollars, and earned $83M in revenue in the local Asheville area. He is also the local director of VentureSouth’s Angel Investment Group, the Asheville Angels, and advisor to the Pisgah Fund, a $50M digital health innovation fund. Prior to leading Venture Asheville, Jeffrey earned his master’s degree in Entrepreneurship and instructed Entrepreneurship at the University of Florida. He is a published author in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy, launched and sold pet-tech startup Dogphrendly, built a Jewish dating site for moms to play matchmaker for their kids, and cofounded TheE13.com.