II: Breaking Barriers & Building Deep Tech, LIVE with Krista Covey, President & CEO, First Flight Venture Center

In this special LIVE episode of the RIoT Underground, we sit down with Krista Covey, President & CEO of First Flight Venture Center—North Carolina’s oldest business incubator—in front of a live audience to explore what it takes to build world-changing companies in the deep tech and high science space. Krista shares her personal journey from kid entrepreneur to recovering banker to startup ecosystem champion, and unpacks the critical role of long-term investment and ecosystem support in bringing high-impact innovation to life. We dig into how economic development intersects with startups, what’s trending in AI and life sciences, and why building allergy-free peanuts might just be the next big thing. If you’re curious about the people and programs helping startups go from idea to impact, this episode is for you.Learn more about First Flight Venture Center and how to engage: https://www.ffvcnc.org/Support the showProduced by: RIoTLearn more about RIoT: https://riot.org/Newsletter Sign-Up: http://tinyurl.com/ncekm63mFollow RIoT on social mediaInstagramTwitterFacebookLinkedin