David Brim
Equipping young people with entrepreneurial skills and a process for taking their ideas to reality will add significant value to many facets of their lives. Learn to Start’s commitment to instilling these skills and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit within our youth, coupled with their disruptive yet highly effective approach to education, is why I am proud to be a supporter.
David Brim is an entrepreneur and marketing strategist turned investor. He is the founding partner and Chief Strategy Officer of Orlando Opportunity Fund, focused on advancing Central Florida communities through investments in early stage companies and commercial real estate. He is also a co-founder of Bright Impact, a consulting, software and fund administration company focused on Opportunity Zones.
A graduate of the University of Central Florida, where he majored in marketing, David is the only two-time winner of the school’s Joust Business Plan Competition and was also a finalist in the in the Sunshine State Venture Challenge, and the Nascent 500 Business Challenge in Indianapolis.
David has been involved in many early stage ventures across a variety of industries and has special interest and expertise in online lead generation, Software as a Service (SaaS), ecommerce, private lending, and investment real estate. He has been featured in one of the most popular entrepreneurship textbooks Successfully Launching New Ventures & interviewed on Fox, ABC & CBS about topics such as entrepreneurship & internet marketing. In 2013 he wrote a book on digital marketing that reached #13 on Amazon’s Best Seller list within its category. The book was also used in UCF Marketing classes, and by the Orlando International Airport to educate their business vendors.
David provides marketing consulting to startups and second stage companies through Brand Advance, a marketing firm he founded in 2009. He has worked with over 1,000 second stage businesses ($1M-$10M in sales) through Economic Gardening – an entrepreneurial approach to Economic Development.
Prior to founding Brand Advance, he helped develop the premium influencer program at IZEA. In that role he helped plan, execute & measure social campaigns & connected online influencers with brands such as SeaWorld, Kmart, Microsoft & more. During that time David also co-founded GroupTable, a collaboration software with 10k users at the time of exit. According to Mashable “The entire makeup of the service is quite impressive. Powerful but not overwhelming”.
David has a passion for helping to fund and scale businesses and real estate projects. He is the managing director of Founder Funders, a business that leverages a vast network of private funders to sources debt capital for numerous funding needs including business expansion, working capital, inventory, bridge loans, real estate acquisition, new construction, and more. Loans from $20,000 to $2B+.
In 2018 he co-founded the Orlando Opportunity Fund, focused on investing in business and real estate projects in Central Florida Opportunity Zones. He currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer.
David is active in the Central Florida community and mentors numerous businesses through organizations such as StarterStudio, Startup Weekend, Lift Orlando, the University of Central Florida, and more. In 2019 he was elected to the Board of Directors of The University Club of Orlando. He is on the advisory board of IDEAS FOR US, a United Nations–accredited non-governmental organization which works to advance sustainability through local action projects. He also sits on the board of Crossroads Corral, a nonprofit co-founded by his wife Lindsay that promotes personal growth, hope and healing through horses.
When he’s not working David enjoys playing basketball, fishing, traveling, self-improvement, mentoring and spending time with his wife Lindsay and their two children.
