Lighthouse Labs Launches Latest Accelerator Class with New Director at Lead

As seven startups enter the latest session of the Lighthouse Labs accelerator, the organization’s new leader is looking for additional ways to support the companies after the program ends.

After conducting dozens of conversations with Lighthouse Labs alumni and investors in her first months on the job, Managing Director Debbie Irwin found a common theme was the desire among accelerator program graduates to forge stronger, long-term relationships with the organization.

“It became very obvious that Lighthouse had played a pivotal role in the lives of these founders, and one of the things they were looking for was an ongoing and improved connection,” said Irwin, who is the group’s fourth managing director in the past few years.

In the organization’s 11-week accelerator program, participating startups receive $20,000 in unconditional funding and access to educational programs and mentoring. Irwin said Lighthouse does a good job of preparing companies for success, but she feels there’s a lack of ongoing support for graduates after they graduate from the program. She said addressing that gap is a priority for her.

“There’s a lot of focus on reimagining the community-building aspect of founder support. Eleven weeks is not enough to support a founder,” she said. “One of my visions for the organization is a really solid network of alumni and investors.”

To that end, Irwin plans to hold a quarterly event under the organization’s banner for those who have gone through the Lighthouse program. The first will be in September. It is expected to be a recurring event in Richmond and other cities.

To help alumni find investors, Irwin is reintroducing Lighthouse-hosted tours, where founders pitch their concepts to investors in cities other than Richmond. She said the organization used to oversee such tours before the pandemic, but the practice has since fallen by the wayside.

A trip to Raleigh, N.C., is planned for November. Irwin said investors are more likely to meet with founders if the founders are brought to them in a group. She said an evening of face-to-face interaction is a more fruitful way to raise investment and build relationships than a barrage of emails.

Irwin added that another area to focus on is working on relationships with large local companies that could provide Lighthouse startups with contractual, real-world work experience.

The move to expand opportunities for Lighthouse’s accelerator program comes as the organization kicks off its 17th accelerator class, which was announced this week.

Among the latest startups is one local company, Glen Allen-based Liquet. Founded by John Schindler, the company is developing a treatment for blood clots in the lungs with personalized drug delivery and duration of therapy, according to a news release from Lighthouse.

The other companies in the group are: Falls Church-based Canopie, which provides mental health services for mothers; Arlington-based EmpathixAI, which is developing an AI pollster for conducting market research; McLean-based Gateway, a professional training platform; Fairfax-based Myles Comfort Foods, a frozen food company; Great Falls-based VerbaAI, a news analytics company; and Arlington-based Parrots, which uses AI to detect and monitor neurodegenerative diseases.

The latest accelerator session is the first under the overall leadership of Irwin, who began work in late February, just days before the start of the 16th accelerator session.

Irwin is Lighthouse’s fourth director since 2020. The organization, founded in 2012, has an annual budget of about $1.1 million and is headquartered at Capital One’s Michael Wassmer Innovation Center in Shockoe Bottom (formerly known as the 1717 Innovation Center).

Before joining Lighthouse, Irwin spent more than five years as executive director of the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund, a Staunton nonprofit that supports entrepreneurs and business development. She co-founded the Harrisonburg-based Manufactory Collective, an incubator for manufacturing businesses.

Liz Doerr, the new chairwoman of Lighthouse’s board and co-founder of local consulting firm Sandbox, said in an interview this week that Irwin stood out from the other candidates because of her diverse experience, not only in startups but also as a leader in the nonprofit sector.

“Debbie is a bit of a unicorn. We were looking for someone with startup and entrepreneurship experience, as well as experience running a nonprofit,” said Doerr, who said she will assume the Lighthouse board chairmanship in January, replacing current chairman Joe Whitchurch.

Lighthouse is a nonprofit organization through its affiliation with Bridging Virginia, which financially sponsors the accelerator. Lighthouse was previously under the umbrella of Activation Capital, a nonprofit and independent state body, and is currently working to secure its own nonprofit status.

Irwin took over the role of Lighthouse director from Art Espey, a board member who assumed the position in the spring of 2023 on an interim basis, although Lighthouse did not specify the interim nature of his service in the public announcement of his appointment.

Espey was preceded by Paul Nolde, who was a Lighthouse executive for about a year starting in April 2022 before moving to a similar role at 757 Angels, a Norfolk-based firm that connects investors with startups. Nolde took over from Erin Powell, who landed a job at Lighthouse alumni Blue Ocean Brain, in early 2022 after serving as a Lighthouse executive for two years starting in April 2020.

Doerr said that while there has been some turnover at Lighthouse in top positions, she believes the organization continues to draw on the experience and support of former executives as they remain in the entrepreneurial and startup community in Virginia.

“Everyone has remained closely connected to the Lighthouse Labs family in one way or another,” she said.

Looking ahead, Doerr hopes Irwin can forge stronger relationships with other local startup and entrepreneurship organizations, such as Startup Virginia, the Metropolitan Business League and Activation Capital, which has also undergone a leadership change and recently announced an accelerator program.

“There are a lot of organizations in Richmond and across the state that are doing great work to help accelerate startups,” Doerr said. “My hope for Lighthouse Labs is that we continue to find what our competitive advantage is and how we support and uplift all these other organizations.”