MONEY

Tennessee start-ups shine during Global Entrepreneurship Week

Charlie Brock
For The Tennessean
Sherry Deutschmann is the founder of LetterLogic.

We at Launch Tennessee feel very strongly about the importance of hosting entrepreneurial-focused events and the platform they create for connections and collaboration. According to the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Week USA survey, hosting events helps organizations and the local ecosystem achieve goals and strengthen connections.

During one week each November, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities that celebrate the innovators, start-ups and drivers of economic growth. This year’s GEW celebration occurred last week. Many Tennessee organizations have been long-time participants of GEW and along with new organizers, represented our state well as they hosted many fabulous events throughout the week.

These events cover a wide range, from large pitch competitions to annual award celebrations, to smaller workshops and networking gatherings. In addition to celebrating innovators and community entrepreneurship, these events are designed to connect organizers, participants, creators, mentors and even investors and allowing for thoughtful conversations, sharing of best practices and introductions to exciting educational opportunities.

A great way for our state to continue building our ecosystem is by celebrating initiatives like Global Entrepreneurship Week, and we thank all of the great organizations across the state that hosted events last week. Below are just a few of the overviews and updates from last week’s myriad activities:

The NEXT Awards were developed by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Nashville Entrepreneur Center to spotlight the companies and individuals whose drive and entrepreneurial spirit are making a significant impact on our region’s economy. Nashville’s impactful business leaders in the city’s most influential business sectors are recognized across several focus areas, such as health care, social enterprise and digital media, among others. Sherry Deutschmann, founder and CEO of LetterLogic, won the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award while EVAmore was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Our organization was honored as Entrepreneurial Partner of the Year, an award that we are very humbled and appreciative to receive.

Knoxville Startup Day highlights the city as the a hub for start-ups and entrepreneurs. More than 400 attendees participated in the event, including business leaders, entrepreneurs and start-ups, investors, young professionals and community leaders. This year’s Startup Day event included a pitch competition between seven start-ups, with the winner FunLPro receiving a $5,000 cash prize. Additionally, there was an exciting announcement that start-up General Graphene, founded by well-known local entrepreneur Vig Sherrill, had secured an $8.7 million series A funding round, led by the Angel Capital Group.

The Biz Foundry, located in Cookeville, hosted a 48-Hour Launch event where attendees were able to take the first steps in getting their business off the ground. Through a condensed learning weekend, these entrepreneurs were able to get business and legal advice, resources to get their prototype going, assistance in building a website, along with many other opportunities to learn and further develop their innovation.

In Chattanooga, the 14th annual Spirit of Innovation Awards were held. This event was created as a way to encourage innovation in Chattanooga’s regional economy and raise awareness about business innovation. The Chattanooga Area Chamber presented the 2015 Spirit of Innovation Award to local start-up and performance management platform Ambition. Futurist Jack Uldrich gave the keynote and praised the city’s forward thinking initiatives that are helping make the city a real leader for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Memphis was the scene of Epicenter’s first Logistics Innovation Accelerator Demo Day, where several companies presented their achievements over the past 13 weeks and pitched to potential investors and customers, as well as community supporters. This is another example of the strong sector focus of our entrepreneur center network where we are leveraging existing industry expertise and support to drive start-up activity.

The Global Action Summit is an annual forum held in Nashville that fosters cross-sector perspectives on food, health, and prosperity. The aim of the summit is to create, guide and facilitate leadership initiatives that address today’s most pressing issues. This year’s keynote address was provided by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, who noted that this annual event, put on by Nashville-based Global Action Platform, is important in highlighting possibilities and making connections for positive change in the world.

There were many other events across the state and we thank all the individuals involved with making GEW a success. Creating a sustaining and innovative environment throughout our state is spurred through initiatives like GEW and the participants who help bring its mission to life throughout Tennessee’s three grand divisions. There is great power in the act of bringing people together and by continuing to do so, we are building a lasting framework to support all of Tennessee’s future thinkers, makers and doers.

Charlie Brock is CEO of Launch Tennessee (www.launchtn.org), a public-private partnership focused on supporting the development of high-growth companies in Tennessee with the ultimate goal of making Tennessee the No. 1 state in the Southeast for entrepreneurs to start and grow a company.