The TENN start-ups continue to blaze new trails

• Launch Tennessee's TENN program showcases the best of the best from its statewide accelerator. network.
• Two years in, the master accelerator program has seen remarkable success.
• Meet some of the TENN companies below and hear their success stories.

When Launch Tennessee launched The TENN program, the goal was simple. Take the best of the best from our statewide accelerator network, and then showcase them around the state, region and country.

Two years in, we’ve had remarkable success doing just that. Along the way, we’ve brought even further recognition to Tennessee’s amazing entrepreneurial network. These sites house some of the Southeast’s top programs based on capital raised by the companies they are shepherding along. They also are the programs focused on innovating sectors such as health care, medical devices, automotive technology, 3-D printing and additive manufacturing and music and digital media.

And they are also leaders in terms of programming centered around female founders, agriculture and logistics.

This robust network laid the groundwork for the TENN companies to succeed. To date, here’s what we’ve seen:

• 18 companies have graduated the program
• $6 million in capital has been raised by TENN participants
• Female Entrepreneurs Institute ranks the TENN one of its Top 12 Accelerators for Female Entrepreneurs
• The 2014-15 class was one-third female

Facts and figures are always great to have (especially so, in this case), but I’d also like to introduce you to a few of the TENN companies, so you can see for yourself how remarkable they are:

Stony Creek Colors works to further scalable production of bio-based dyes including indigo, using natural colorants from a trusted U.S.-based farmer supply chain. Cone Denim recently announced their partnership with Stony Creek for the exclusive supply of natural indigo dye for denim fabrics from its U.S. crop for the next several years.

Gun.io has built an incredible platform for freelance workers. They have designed an online workplace where employers can hire high-quality mobile and web professionals, representing the top 1 percent of all freelance developers in the world. With a $1 million+  annual run rate, Gun.io boasts over 950 projects completed through their platform and big name clients such as Amazon, Zappos and Lonely Planet.

AgSmarts is an agriculture company which embeds intelligence, industrial controls and remote environmental sensing into multiple agronomic applications to help farmers maximize crop yields, optimize water and energy use and reduce operational expenses. The company is raising a $750,000 to $1 million follow-on seed investment round. The company began commercially selling its product five months ago.

Feetz , a “digital cobbler,” is changing an entire industry through 3-D printed footwear. Founder Lucy Beard and her team are now backed by Khosla Ventures (who they met on a TENN visibility-building trip), the JumpFund, a female-led fund in Chattanooga, and former Reebok CEO Uli Becker. The company has raised $1.25 million in seed funding to begin consumer offerings, and is preparing to roll out an app in Apple’s app store that will let users order custom-printed shoes for around $200.

eDivv , an online store to buy, sell and swap beauty products, has just partnered with the third-largest beauty subscription box in the United States, and will be implementing the tech side of the partnership this fall. The company is now busily building out its pipeline of beauty brands that will be used to pursue sampling campaigns as part of a new business development/monetization initiative.

Fiveworx is a customer engagement platform for utility providers, allowing them to deliver energy savings to users through education and adoption of efficiency behaviors. Fiveworx is seeing continued growth in user participation and is approaching the seven-figure revenue mark, nearly 100 percent growth over 2014.

All these companies got where they are by leveraging innovative ideas and hard work in a marketplace that was ready for what they are offering. Launch Tennessee was able to partner and help in many ways, including:

• Creating a Master Mentor network of high-impact professionals who worked with the start-ups on everything from marketing to handling first-time meetings with investors.
• Building local, regional and national media campaigns around the TENN itself, as well as its participant companies, thus providing continual media exposure at no cost to them.
• Specialized curriculum, called “Learning Days,” help the TENN companies hone skills in many facets of business including marketing, finance and legal. The program’s educational component allows for hands-on learning, resulting in scaled traction and maximized growth.

This kind of multi-platform support is invaluable to start-ups. New companies are busy tweaking their offering to make sure it’s ready for market, and rightly so. Having a partner stand behind them to work on marketing, sales and even the proper ways to approach possible venture-capital partners can — and as we have shown, does — make all the difference.

Launch Tennessee is currently accepting applications for the 2015-16 class of The TENN with plans to announce the selected companies in mid-October. We can’t wait to kick off the third year of this program and watch the continued progress for all its companies. To learn more about the program and all TENN alumni companies, please visit www.thetenn.org.

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.