Lowcountry Revolutionaries

William G. Billotte, PhD
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Entrepreneurship

Lowcountry Revolutionaries is the Charleston, SC entrepreneur podcast spotlighting the raw, real journeys of bold founders and innovators shaping the future of the Lowcountry. Hosted by Bill Billotte (aka the Podfather of Chucktown Startups), founder of Veritas Exoscience LLC and Chair of ASTM F48.05, each episode dives into the triumphs, failures, and hard-won lessons from Charleston’s top startup leaders, tech pioneers, nonprofit builders, and creative visionaries. Official LowcountryRevMerch is live! Soft tees, trucker caps, and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the movement and keeps these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs.Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Lowcountry Wisdom—the book distilling 60+ founder interviews—is available: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71 Interested in a custom branded episode for your brand, clients, or to amplify a Lowcountry story? Professional 20–30 minute spots start at $750 for non-local or sponsored placements. Qualified Charleston-area founders and businesses can still appear on the main show at no cost. Reach out at wbillotte@veritasexoscience.com to discuss options. Whether you’re scaling a venture in the Lowcountry, navigating growth, considering a move to Charleston, or just love stories rooted in grit and ingenuity—subscribe for weekly conversations that challenge assumptions and spark real momentum.

  1. 4d ago

    AI Empowerment: Tamara Ashworth on Helping Owner-Led Businesses Get on the AI Ship

    Send us Fan Mail Tamara Ashworth started in finance, earned her MBA in marketing from the University of Notre Dame, and spent twelve years in marketing ad accounts—first as a freelancer, then as founder of Ashworth Strategy. She moved the agency to Charleston in 2021, grew it to a team of 16 and multiple seven figures, and sold it in December 2024. Over those years the brands she worked with generated more than $100 million in revenue. After the exit she went deeper into AI. She now runs her own companies and real estate investments with AI agents that handle the work of at least six full-time employees. She focuses on helping owner-led businesses set up and utilize AI systems to grow. Through FlowSystem AI she installs the same practical systems—intake, follow-up, booking, CRM hygiene, and SOP agents—that she uses in her own businesses. On this episode she talks about her journey, how she built her AI agent system, and how she helps clients build ones that fit their business. She lives in Charleston with her husband and daughter. If you run an owner-led business in the Lowcountry and growth feels stuck behind follow-up, scheduling, or the daily grind, this is the conversation. Intro pre-roll Outro post-roll Support the show Wear the Movement Official LowcountryRevMerch is now live on Etsy: soft tees and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the everyday grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the Lowcountry Revolutionaries movement and helps keep these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs. Wear the movement. Back the stories that matter. 👉 Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Also available: Lowcountry Wisdom — the official book compiled from the best lessons on the show. Paperback & Kindle → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71

  2. 4d ago

    Apex Serves: Bruno Kretzschmar on Opening Competitive Volleyball to More Lowcountry Athletes

    Send us Fan Mail Join Bill and returning guest Bruno Kretzschmar, Executive Director of Apex Volleyball, as he announces Apex Serves—a new nonprofit created to help income-eligible youth cover team and travel fees for competitive club volleyball. Building on Apex’s rapid growth (six-court Apex HQ in North Charleston, travel teams, technical training, and recruiting support), Bruno shares why financial barriers still keep talented athletes off the court and how Apex Serves aims to change that. He also explains the early-stage need for volunteer Directors to help stand the nonprofit up and start serving families in the Greater Charleston area. https://www.apexvolleyballchs.com/ Intro pre-roll Outro post-roll Support the show Wear the Movement Official LowcountryRevMerch is now live on Etsy: soft tees and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the everyday grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the Lowcountry Revolutionaries movement and helps keep these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs. Wear the movement. Back the stories that matter. 👉 Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Also available: Lowcountry Wisdom — the official book compiled from the best lessons on the show. Paperback & Kindle → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71

  3. 4d ago

    Deal Review in Under Five Minutes: Collin Lemmon on Building Sunny and Revolutionizing the Solar Industry

    Send us Fan Mail Collin Lemmon, founder of Charleston-based Mass AI, is on a mission to rebuild the solar industry for an age of superintelligence. Starting with Sunny, an AI employee that reviews sold solar deals against company rules in under five minutes, Mass AI helps residential installers cut the chasing, correct the files, and move more projects to the roof. In this episode, Collin shares why soft costs and operational friction still dominate solar economics, how an AI agent that texts reps (no login required) keeps deals moving inside existing software, and where Mass AI is headed next as it expands beyond deal review into the rest of solar operations. A practical look at applying AI where the real bottleneck is. https://massai.ai Intro pre-roll Outro post-roll Support the show Wear the Movement Official LowcountryRevMerch is now live on Etsy: soft tees and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the everyday grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the Lowcountry Revolutionaries movement and helps keep these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs. Wear the movement. Back the stories that matter. 👉 Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Also available: Lowcountry Wisdom — the official book compiled from the best lessons on the show. Paperback & Kindle → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71

  4. Oct 12

    On Point for the Long Game: Lauren Herterich on Kids On Point and Preparing Kids to Thrive

    Send us Fan Mail Lauren Herterich is Executive Director of Kids On Point, the Charleston nonprofit that makes a long-term bet on young people and their families. Kids On Point offers free, year-round programming after school, on weekends, and through the summer, covering academics, athletics, enrichment, mentorship, and college and career preparation. This isn’t a one-off program, but one focused on cultivating lasting relationships that help students build the confidence, skills, and support systems they need to thrive in school, work, and life. Under Lauren’s leadership, Kids On Point has grown into a comprehensive youth development organization that serves hundreds of students across the Charleston region. In 2026, it brought home the Dick and Tunky Riley WhatWorksSC Award from The Riley Institute at Furman University, earning statewide recognition for programs that actually shape outcomes in South Carolina public education. On this episode of Lowcountry Revolutionaries, Lauren discusses the after-school and summer activities — including squash — that keep students coming back, how this work is making a difference in kids’ lives, and how people and businesses can get involved. If you’d like to back programming that supports students and families across the Lowcountry, stay tuned for Kids On Point’s phonathon beginning October 19! Intro pre-roll Outro post-roll Support the show Wear the Movement Official LowcountryRevMerch is now live on Etsy: soft tees and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the everyday grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the Lowcountry Revolutionaries movement and helps keep these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs. Wear the movement. Back the stories that matter. 👉 Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Also available: Lowcountry Wisdom — the official book compiled from the best lessons on the show. Paperback & Kindle → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71

  5. Oct 12

    The First 250: Grady Johnson and Pete Sniderman on Funding Lowcountry Founders

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Lowcountry Revolutionaries, I sit down with Grady Johnson, executive director of The Harbor Entrepreneur Center, and Pete Sniderman, co-founder of the Lowcountry Impact Fund. They talk about the fund’s first investment: $250,000 in The Harbor, and how it connects Grady’s work with local entrepreneurs to Pete’s vision for addressing funding gaps across the Lowcountry. The Lowcountry Impact Fund is a locally led charitable impact investment fund sponsored by Abundance Capital. Unlike a traditional grant, the capital is structured with the expectation of repayment. When those dollars come back, they can be put to work again in another business, nonprofit, or community project. The first check is flexible, risk-tolerant capital for The Harbor as it grows programs for entrepreneurs, startups, and companies building here. Founded in 2012, The Harbor Entrepreneur Center is the Mount Pleasant nonprofit that gives founders the connections, mentorship, programming, and resources to start, grow, scale, and exit. It is home to more than 130 companies and, as it heads toward its 15th anniversary in 2027, remains one of the region’s hubs for people actually building companies in the Lowcountry. Grady and Pete get into why this first investment matters, what charitable capital can do that a grant or a conventional loan cannot, and what it takes to keep more successful companies rooted here. Learn more at harborec.org and abundancecap.org/pooled_fund/lowcountry-impact-fund. Intro pre-roll Outro post-roll Support the show Wear the Movement Official LowcountryRevMerch is now live on Etsy: soft tees and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the everyday grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the Lowcountry Revolutionaries movement and helps keep these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs. Wear the movement. Back the stories that matter. 👉 Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Also available: Lowcountry Wisdom — the official book compiled from the best lessons on the show. Paperback & Kindle → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71

  6. Oct 5

    Curate to Scale: Karissa Noel on Marketing Foundations at Curated Studios

    Send us Fan Mail Karissa Noel has spent more than 15 years building brands, launching businesses, and helping founders get seen. She has started four companies, written a book, and produced podcasts and documentaries, including a show Forbes ranked among the world’s top three women’s leadership podcasts. She is also a mom of five who is raising that crew while building in Charleston. In this episode of Lowcountry Revolutionaries, Bill sits down with Karissa, CEO and co-founder of Curated Studios, the Charleston branding and marketing agency she launched with Abigail Ray. After more than a decade inside large brands, nonprofits, startups, and solo practices, the two started Curated Studios on a simple belief: every founder deserves the kind of marketing strategy that used to live only inside big agencies. They talk about strategy, branding, marketing, and media built on a proprietary framework Curated Studios teaches in small live-group cohorts and also runs directly for clients. Whether they are teaching it or doing it, the pillars stay the same. The work is about a foundation that can scale, not a pile of tactics that fall apart the moment the founder gets busy. Listeners will hear why so many early companies skip the foundation, what “curated” actually means when you are a one-person or small team, and how Charleston founders can get big-agency thinking without big-agency overhead. Connect with Karissa and Curated Studios: Website: https://curatedstudios.co Free Marketing Power Hour: https://curatedstudios.co/power-hour Curate Your Foundation: https://curatedstudios.co/curated-cohort LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/curated-studios-co Instagram and Facebook: @curatedstudios.co Intro pre-roll Outro post-roll Support the show Wear the Movement Official LowcountryRevMerch is now live on Etsy: soft tees and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the everyday grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the Lowcountry Revolutionaries movement and helps keep these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs. Wear the movement. Back the stories that matter. 👉 Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Also available: Lowcountry Wisdom — the official book compiled from the best lessons on the show. Paperback & Kindle → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71

  7. Sep 28

    Mail Dropping: Colin McFaul on Drip Drop and Marketing Automation Without the Lock-In

    Send us Fan Mail Colin McFaul is a software developer and serial entrepreneur who has built businesses in real estate, hospitality, and marketing. For the past several years he has run Layline, a Charleston software agency where he helps companies ship MVPs and steps in as fractional CTO. The same friction kept showing up: marketing automation tools that were either too rigid or locked teams into someone else’s sending infrastructure—and then billed them by the contact. The solution became Drip Drop. Drip Drop is a no-code platform for email and SMS campaigns with a drag-and-drop editor that runs on your sending accounts. Connect SendGrid, Twilio, Gmail, Outlook, or whatever you already use. Drip Drop handles the logic: branching on replies, tags, or sentiment, A/B splits, pauses, and AI-generated steps. Enterprise-style journeys without the lock-in or the per-contact tax. Bill sits down with Colin to talk about going from agency builder to product founder, why “bring your own infrastructure” matters for Lowcountry operators, and what it takes to launch a tool you kept wishing existed. Learn more: dripdrop.dev Intro pre-roll Outro post-roll Support the show Wear the Movement Official LowcountryRevMerch is now live on Etsy: soft tees and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the everyday grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the Lowcountry Revolutionaries movement and helps keep these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs. Wear the movement. Back the stories that matter. 👉 Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Also available: Lowcountry Wisdom — the official book compiled from the best lessons on the show. Paperback & Kindle → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71

  8. Sep 21

    Winning Padel in the Lowcountry: Ben Nichols, aka Mr. Padel, on Why Charleston Is Next

    Send us Fan Mail You may have heard of padel or you may not. Either way, Ben Nichols has spent four years making sure the rest of the world cannot ignore it. Padel is the world’s fastest-growing racquet sport: doubles on an enclosed court, played by roughly 35 million people globally and by names from Eva Longoria to Andrew Schulz to David Beckham. Ben is the British entrepreneur who helped take it from relative obscurity into the American and British mainstream. He founded Padel 22, the first specialist padel agency; built Insider 22, a global network of padel business leaders; launched media platform The 22; and co-founded the Anglo American Padel Cup — widely called “the Ryder Cup of padel.” Along the way he has advised operators, investors, and non-endemic brands entering the sport, and told the story through Forbes, the Financial Times, the New York Times, CNN International, and the BBC. He could have based himself anywhere in the United States. A few weeks ago he moved his family to Mount Pleasant instead. In this episode, Ben sits down with Bill Billotte to explain why founders like him are choosing Charleston to build ambitious businesses, what the Lowcountry already has that made padel explode elsewhere (i.e., outdoor lifestyle, racquet-sport culture, entrepreneurial energy, and a community that still values real connection) and why a new club from operator PATL, opening later this year in Mount Pleasant, feels like the start of something bigger for the city and the South. He also unpacks the business of an emerging sport: how you brand a game most Americans still confuse with pickleball, how you build community before the courts exist, and what it takes to go from “interesting niche” to a movement people cannot look away from. If you are a founder watching a category get built in real time or a Lowcountry operator wondering what the next big local sport-and-community play looks like this one is for you. Contact Ben at (ben@padel22.com) and check out his Instragram channel here: https://www.instagram.com/thepadelpr/ Intro pre-roll Outro post-roll Support the show Wear the Movement Official LowcountryRevMerch is now live on Etsy: soft tees and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the everyday grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the Lowcountry Revolutionaries movement and helps keep these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs. Wear the movement. Back the stories that matter. 👉 Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Also available: Lowcountry Wisdom — the official book compiled from the best lessons on the show. Paperback & Kindle → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Lowcountry Revolutionaries is the Charleston, SC entrepreneur podcast spotlighting the raw, real journeys of bold founders and innovators shaping the future of the Lowcountry. Hosted by Bill Billotte (aka the Podfather of Chucktown Startups), founder of Veritas Exoscience LLC and Chair of ASTM F48.05, each episode dives into the triumphs, failures, and hard-won lessons from Charleston’s top startup leaders, tech pioneers, nonprofit builders, and creative visionaries. Official LowcountryRevMerch is live! Soft tees, trucker caps, and mugs built for dock walks, King Street hustles, and the grind of building in Charleston. Every purchase supports the movement and keeps these authentic founder stories free for qualified local entrepreneurs.Shop now: https://lowcountryrevmerch.etsy.com Lowcountry Wisdom—the book distilling 60+ founder interviews—is available: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2KS5S71 Interested in a custom branded episode for your brand, clients, or to amplify a Lowcountry story? Professional 20–30 minute spots start at $750 for non-local or sponsored placements. Qualified Charleston-area founders and businesses can still appear on the main show at no cost. Reach out at wbillotte@veritasexoscience.com to discuss options. Whether you’re scaling a venture in the Lowcountry, navigating growth, considering a move to Charleston, or just love stories rooted in grit and ingenuity—subscribe for weekly conversations that challenge assumptions and spark real momentum.

Information

  • Creator
    William G. Billotte, PhD
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    104
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Lowcountry Revolutionaries
  • Show Website
    Lowcountry Revolutionaries