Joey Cheek didn’t want to be 40 and still talking about what he did 20 years ago. It’s hard to do when one becomes a global speed-skating sensation at age 22, winning a bronze medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics and following up four years later with gold and silver hardware.
It’s also why he spent three weeks as a commentator for NBC Sports at this year’s Olympics in northern Italy.
But Cheek’s main focus for the past two years has been speeding the performance of small businesses and startups in Guilford County.
In October 2023, he joined the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce as executive vice president of entrepreneurship and the leader of Launch Greensboro, which is designed to grow local businesses. A current project is Greensboro Startup Week in late April, which will emphasize industries throughout the Carolina Core region, he says.
“We think it’s compelling enough that the whole state should come,” Cheek says. “When you look at startup weeks in general, a lot of them are only entrepreneurial training. We’re going to have that, but what we really want is for big industries to be here to interface with the next generation of great companies.”
Cheek says his goal is to build the best ecosystem in Greensboro for tech and venture growth. He cites the three pillars of his work as entrepreneur training, research commercialization and industry partnership.
“Just like athletics, every person has their own set of talents, abilities and interests,” Cheek says. “I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I’ve always wanted to go out and create something big.”
TEAMWORK MINDSET
Cheek created a big career early in his life, picking up ice skating after starting with roller skates at a north Greensboro rink. He graduated from Greensboro’s Dudley High School in 1997, then pursued his skating passion over the next decade. After his Olympics career, he enrolled at Princeton University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2011.
He then worked for a venture firm in San Francisco and was part of a few startups before moving back to Greensboro in 2021 with his wife, Tamara. She was on the U.S. kayak team in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, and is involved in community groups, has made documentary films and is launching a management consulting group.
Cheek says his transition from sport to entrepreneurship came with challenges.
“When I first started in business, I had gotten soft,” Cheek explains. “I kind of had all these people believing everything I touch is going to turn to gold, but I got into the startup world, and it’s been so hard. It’s every bit as hard, or maybe even harder than winning Olympic medals, to start a great company.”
Switching from the individuality of sport to a teamwork mindset in business was difficult.
“The definition of a company is being more than one person and speed skating is an individual sport,” Cheek says. “When I wasn’t doing as well as I wanted, my natural instinct was to try harder myself. However, if you’re trying to build a business, one of the first things that you learn – and I learned very painfully – is that you cannot do it all. This is still challenging for me. It’s still uncomfortable for me to go ask for new help or new support, but we have to all the time.”
Cheek’s second instinct from skating was to focus on one goal. An Olympic medal in speed skating was that goal for a large part of his life.
“Becoming an Olympic champion is a phenomenally specialized thing,” Cheek says. “It’s always the same thing and getting really, really good at one thing. It’s not specialized in business. I found the best entrepreneurs are happy being 80% good at 10 things rather than the best at one.”
Despite the challenges, Cheek has taken many life lessons from professional speed skating and applied them at the chamber.
“The year after my Olympic career, I did 100 speeches in 300 days either raising money for causes I believe in or doing the corporate circuit that a lot of athletes do,” Cheek says. “The ability to communicate and articulate a vision has been by far my strongest ability as an entrepreneur.”
As Greensboro continues its transition from a city dominated by textiles, tobacco and furniture to new industries, it requires an inspired vision, he notes. “I think I got good at being able to tell stories and that has been instrumental in helping me in this role.”
Cheek also learned how to work harder than the average person.
“The capacity to just absorb work and just be a pack horse is kind of essential, no matter where you are,” Cheek says. “I was, and still am, unafraid to suffer in pursuit of a goal.”
Cheek, 46, doesn’t compete in skating anymore, but the sport remains central to his personal and professional life. His broadcasting experience in Italy is a terrific opportunity,
he says.
“Americans do not get to watch much speed skating, so we really want to put into time and place what it is they’re seeing and the significance of it.
“I still get to do a lot of cool stuff like commentating on the Olympics, so I’m not totally removed from skating. But, I wanted to make sure that I did something else with my life. Now, I try my best to support entrepreneurs and help them to avoid my mistakes and maximize the good parts.” ■
