{"691887":{"#nid":"691887","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Lara Hodgson Named Executive Director of New Startup Accelerator at Georgia Tech","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELara Hodgson has been named the inaugural executive director of the new startup accelerator at Georgia Tech. Under Hodgson\u2019s leadership, the accelerator will begin delivering on its mission to support emerging startups with the resources and infrastructure to scale into businesses.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPreviously known as Velocity Startups,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/commercialization.gatech.edu\/venturearcade\u0022\u003EThe Venture Arcade\u003C\/a\u003E serves as a bridge between early-stage startup founders who have participated in Georgia Tech initiatives like \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/create-x.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECREATE-X\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/quadrant-i.research.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EQuadrant-i\u003C\/a\u003E, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biolocity.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EBiolocity\u003C\/a\u003E and are focused on scaling their businesses and preparing themselves for late-stage accelerators such as the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/atdc.org\/\u0022\u003EAdvanced Technology Development Center\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/engage.vc\/\u0022\u003EEngage\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/fusen.world\/\u0022\u003EFusen\u003C\/a\u003E, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/atlantatechvillage.com\/\u0022\u003EAtlanta Tech Village\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHodgson brings more than two decades of entrepreneurial leadership, capital markets expertise, and global operating experience to the role. As CEO of RoxWrite, she led the development of an industry-leading, AI-powered underwriting, onboarding, and risk-monitoring platform. Hodgson co-founded and led Now Corp from 2010 to 2024, serving as president and CEO of the innovative business-to-business payments company that created NowAccount. Earlier in her career, she co-founded Nourish Inc., served as executive VP of Dunk.net and chief marketing officer and chief operating officer of Dewberry Capital Corporation, and was senior vice president and general manager at iXL, where she built and led the Retail and Consumer\u0026nbsp;Products Practice across 26 global offices serving clients such as The Home Depot, Coca-Cola, and Nike.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022As a Georgia Tech graduate, serial entrepreneur, and longtime mentor to founders at CREATE-X and Harvard Business School, I\u0027ve seen what it takes to start and scale a business, and I\u0027ve seen how much faster and more successful that journey can be with the right resources,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Venture Arcade is built to deliver exactly that, with access to Georgia Tech\u2019s unparalleled resources. Bringing capital, capacity, and customers, The Venture Arcade\u2019s flywheel of growth will give Georgia Tech founders and local technology companies, including hard tech and deep tech, an unfair advantage. I\u0027m proud to work with Georgia Tech to bring this program to Atlanta, a city ready to take its place as a top five technology and startup hub in the U.S.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHodgson is also a nationally recognized thought leader on entrepreneurship and access to capital. She co-authored the award-winning book\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ELevel Up: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back\u003C\/em\u003E (2022), published by Portfolio Penguin and now widely used in university entrepreneurship courses. She previously served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School, where she continues to mentor founders and judge venture competitions. She has also served as a mentor in Georgia Tech\u2019s CREATE-X 10x program, coaching high-potential founders as they scale and pursue significant market opportunities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cLara possesses the capital formation expertise and business acumen to put The Venture Arcade on the map,\u201d said Raghupathy \u201cSiva\u201d Sivakumar, chief commercialization officer at Georgia Tech and president of Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures. \u201cHer experience building, scaling, and financing companies makes her uniquely suited to shape The Venture Arcade into a meaningful pathway for high-potential startups. Lara truly embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of Georgia Tech, and we are thrilled to have her on the leadership team.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA proud Georgia Tech alumna, Hodgson earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in aerospace engineering with highest honors and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation and serves on multiple corporate and nonprofit boards. Her honors include recognition as a 2019 EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman, a Worthy 100 honoree by \u003Cem\u003EWorth\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Emagazine, and inclusion in\u003Cem\u003E Pathway of Progress\u003C\/em\u003E, the campus installation celebrating women at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbout The Venture Arcade\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Venture Arcade is a startup accelerator that propels deep-tech innovation, providing the resources and infrastructure for founders to take their innovations to market. Located in the heart of Tech Square in the historic Biltmore Innovation Center, The Venture Arcade offers mentorship, infrastructure, strategic programming, and funding opportunities. The accelerator is made possible through a partnership with\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gatv.gatech.edu\/home\u0022\u003EGeorgia Advanced Technology Ventures Inc.\u003C\/a\u003E and the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.gtf.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Foundation.\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELara Hodgson has been named the inaugural executive director of the new startup accelerator at Georgia Tech. Under Hodgson\u2019s leadership, the accelerator will begin delivering on its mission to support emerging startups with the resources and infrastructure to scale into businesses.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Accelerator to begin delivering on its mission to support emerging startups with the resources and infrastructure to scale into businesses"}],"uid":"34602","created_gmt":"2026-08-24 11:57:39","changed_gmt":"2026-08-24 14:09:37","author":"Georgia Parmelee","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-08-24T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-08-24T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680957":{"id":"680957","type":"image","title":"Lara_Hodgson_headshot_horizontal.png","body":null,"created":"1787573078","gmt_created":"2026-08-24 12:04:38","changed":"1787573078","gmt_changed":"2026-08-24 12:04:38","alt":"Lara Hodgson portrait","file":{"fid":"265295","name":"Lara_Hodgson_headshot_horizontal.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/24\/Lara_Hodgson_headshot_horizontal.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/24\/Lara_Hodgson_headshot_horizontal.png","mime":"image\/png","size":870116,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/24\/Lara_Hodgson_headshot_horizontal.png?itok=eae6LMC-"}}},"media_ids":["680957"],"groups":[{"id":"655285","name":"GT Commercialization"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193658","name":"Commercialization"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Parmelee\u003Cbr\u003Egrobert6@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}