First Flight Venture Center: Launching Startups Successfully

Krista’s passion is serving high-impact entrepreneurial ventures and helping them achieve success. She has been supporting the development and growth of early-stage companies through her work building and leading award-winning innovation hubs in Florida and Texas. She has an extensive background in banking and finance and has experience in business incubation and acceleration, strategic management, business development, marketing, economic development, economic gardening for high-growth science and tech companies, and public relations. As an entrepreneur at heart, she has also grown her own successful finance business with a profitable exit and served on several start-up boards. Krista is a certified Business Incubator Manager with the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA) and currently serves as the Chair of the InBIA Executive Board of Directors. She is part of the Startup Champions Network, driving long-term change by supporting innovation and entrepreneurship and working to reduce barriers for entrepreneurs, and has served on numerous community and industry boards. Krista holds a B.S. in Business Marketing from Southeastern University and her Master’s in Business Administration from Saint Leo University.

Ben Provan is a seasoned entrepreneur, mechanical engineer, and startup advisor with over 18 years of experience in cleantech, sustainable agriculture, and product design. Ben serves as Director of Hangar6, a hardware prototyping lab at First Flight Venture Center, where he supports deep tech startups to advance their hardware prototyping and commercialization efforts. Ben is a former founder himself, serving for 9 years as the CEO of OpenDoor Coliving, where he pioneered the co-living industry in the U.S., creating a model for socially-driven housing solutions that address urban housing shortages and social isolation. Under his leadership, OpenDoor expanded to a portfolio of 19 properties, amassing 406 units across three major markets and attracting $8M in funding. Previously, Ben served as Head of Commercialization at Achor Innovations, a waste-to-biofuels startup, as well as working as a mechanical design engineer at Bose Corporation, where he worked on pre-market prototypes and concepts in the consumer electronics industry. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell and an MBA in Sustainable Business from Presidio. 

Jim has been with Siemens for over a decade, leading a variety of sales & new revenue strategy teams.  As part of Siemens Digital Industries Software, Jim is the Americas Lead for SMB Ecosystems, Incubators & Accelerators, where he drives thought leadership and sales execution to serve startups with the Siemens Xcelerator Platform.  His experience forming new teams within Siemens, performing Technology – Product – Market segmentation and creating executable sales strategies is critical to helping startups focus and achieve milestones.  He has extensive SaaS B2B enterprise software sales experience for technical users.  When not helping startups achieve milestones, Jim will be found with his best friend and bride, Holly, and their growing family.

First Flight Venture Center (FFVC) is North Carolina’s Original Science-Based Technology Incubator. Since 1991, First Flight Venture Center has championed high-impact science and technology startups, supporting their journey from concept to commercialization. Located in the heart of Research Triangle Park, FFVC offers tailored resources, expert guidance, valuable connections, and a collaborative ecosystem to empower early-stage companies for long-term success. Originally launched by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, First Flight now operates as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation with a mission to propel science-driven innovation. Their mission is to accelerate early-stage science companies through comprehensive resources, empowering innovators to transform good ideas into great successes. Their vision is to serve as a global hub of excellence, driving positive change by empowering science innovators. Learn more here.