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Influential Leaders

Bryan Delaney

Founding Partner, Post Ventures
Recognition Year(s): 2025
Area of Impact: Community or Social Impact
School: Belk College of Business, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Location: United States

Summary

An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bryan Delaney champions diversifying the entrepreneurial landscape of Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2005, Delaney co-founded Skookum, a tech partner for custom software solutions and user-experience design services. After the successful sale of Skookum in 2019, he co-founded Post Ventures, a company that partners with other entrepreneurs and founders to facilitate fair deals while selling their own businesses. Delaney also currently serves as president of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Charlotte and helped establish the EO Charlotte Accelerator program, which equips business owners with the insight, mentorship, and networks to successfully scale their ventures to 1 million USD.

Entrepreneurial Impact

Delaney’s visionary leadership has consistently driven innovation and success in each venture he undertakes. After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte Belk College of Business, Delaney developed cloud-based applications for the U.S. Department of Defense as a contractor.

In 2005, he co-founded Skookum, a digital business technology company, alongside his Belk College of Business roommate James Hartsell. Driven by a passion for partnering with visionary clients to tackle complex digital business innovation challenges, Delaney played a pivotal role in advancing both Skookum and its clients’ goals. Skookum helped organizations such as Coca-Cola, Lowe’s, and MetLife deliver customer, partner, and employee experiences. The company’s success led to its acquisition by GlobalLogic Inc. in 2019.

Today, Delaney employs his experience and expertise to give back to the community and build up the next generation of entrepreneurs in Charlotte. Through his role as president of EO Charlotte, he continues to support the EO Accelerator program he helped launch to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners scale their ventures through coaching and curriculum. To qualify, a business must make at least 250,000 USD in annual revenue. Then, over the course of three years, that business works with EO members and mentors to reach 1 million USD—the threshold for membership in EO.

“Some of our core values are to think big, be bold, have a thirst for leaning, build trust, and show respect,” Delaney says. “As a board, we started to look at how we could create a program that would help other entrepreneurs in town. EO Global had put together a curriculum. We’ve turned that into a unique experience for our participants, the coaches, and the other people who get involved.”

Delaney has also launched another business, Post Ventures, with Hartsell. It focuses on acquiring small businesses and collaborating with their founders to optimize profitability while prioritizing team welfare and ensuring long-term sustainability.

Further, Delaney’s and Hartsell’s families named the technology studio at Cannon School—a preparatory school in Concord, North Carolina—“The Mill.” There, middle school students can engage in virtual and augmented reality, robotics, media arts, videography, and electronics and circuitry, as well as attend class offerings in creative design and engineering, computer science, and robotics. Delaney helps entrepreneurs of all ages realize their potential and learn the skills they need to achieve their goals.

Delaney’s contributions to UNC Charlotte, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, and the North Tryon Steering Committee further highlight his sustained impact on the Charlotte region. He recently helped launch the Founders Society in support of UNC Charlotte’s new CO-LAB, a project of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation that will foster innovation, enable the exchange of ideas, and increase access to resources, as well as provide a unique opportunity to engage founders, startups, and corporate partners in collaboration. Delaney played a key role in ensuring that EO Charlotte will lease space in the CO-LAB when it opens in fall 2025.

Outside of his professional work, Delaney is deeply committed to giving back to his community. He is passionate about supporting causes related to entrepreneurship, upward mobility, and STEM education. He has served on multiple boards in the Charlotte area, including the UNC Charlotte Foundation Board, Cabarrus College of Health Sciences Governing Board, the Board of Visitors at Cannon School, the EO Charlotte Board, the Discovery Place Board of Trustees, and the Remington & Vernick Engineers Board.

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