Innov865 Week is a week-long series of events, taking place September 19-23, 2016, to celebrate and showcase Knoxville as a great place for entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses. We have partnered with the Innov865 Alliance to bring you stories of innovation born in East Tennessee. Today, we’re taking a look at two giants in East Tennessee research—the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee Research Foundation—and what role they’re playing in supporting entrepreneurship in the region.

What do you think goes on at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory? Top-secret government work is probably the first thing that comes to mind, but did you know ORNL is a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity? There’s the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), which works with 3-D printer manufacturers, material providers and equipment manufacturers to develop faster, stronger and larger additive manufacturing solutions. “On any given day at the MDF, you can see dozens of these companies represented on the shop floor,” says Dan MIller, manager of industrial and economic development partnerships at ORNL.

ORNL also offers several entrepreneurial development programs, including the Technology Innovation Program, which selects and supports several ORNL researchers to accelerate their technologies to commercial readiness. “Projects are selected competitively based on their potential for near-term societal or economic impact,” Miller says.

Through a partnership with the University of Tennessee, ORNL leaders like Tom Rogers, director of industrial and economic development partnerships, teach classes in entrepreneurship and mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. “The class matches students with ORNL technologies with the goal to create sustainable business models,” Miller says.

So does all of this support work? Miller says the impact of the ORNL on the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is big and getting bigger. For example, it’s attracting companies to the area. Recently, Local Motors decided to open a microfactory right by the MDF to build 3D printed vehicles. Magnum Venus Products, a premier composites equipment company, also opened a facility in the MDF vicinity. And its partnership with UT has already yielded some promising startups, including Nano Elements Source and Grow Bioplastics. General Graphene is another ORNL success story. The Oak Ridge-based startup, which licensed ORNL technology to manufacture graphene, an advanced material with multiple applications, has attracted significant investment, including $8.7 million in series A funding.

Thirty miles away in the heart of Knoxville sits the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, which is believed to be the second-oldest university research foundation in the country. And there’s a lot going on there. UTRF houses the university’s office of technology transfer, which handles the licensing of innovations developed by UT students and faculty. It hosts the Tennessee Venture Challenge competition that includes a seven-week entrepreneurship boot camp followed by a pitch competition. It partners with regional events like Innov865 Week to promote awareness and celebrate the success of entrepreneurship in the region. There’s a 16,000-square-foot on-campus incubator space, which houses 17 companies. And there’s soon to be an accelerator program with room for two entrepreneurs-in-residence, according to Dr. Stacey Patterson, vice president of UTRF. It will be a collaboration with the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the UT College of Business.

There’s also the new Cherokee Farm Innovation Campus, a 77-acre plot of land master-planned for more than a million square feet of building space for public-private partnership development. “It’s a research and development park that gives businesses access to the most powerful tools available in materials science and high-performance computing, along with the internationally renowned researchers at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory,” she says. “We envision companies graduating from the UTRF business incubator to find permanent homes at Cherokee Farm.”

And that’s no pipe dream. Dr. Patteson says the UTRF averages 3-4 new company starts per year. There have been approximately 50 companies started out of UT technology over the past decade, and 38 of these companies are still in business in Tennessee today. In 2015, these companies raised over $54.5 million in venture-type funding and one company, Knoxville-based Hubble Telemedical, was just three years old when it was acquired last year by Welch Allyn.

When UTRF technology is licensed, Dr. Patterson says her organization encourages those entrepreneurs to stay put in Tennessee. “We are working with regional entrepreneurial support organizations and venture capital to try to ensure these companies have the best opportunity to grow their business in Tennessee,” she says.

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Photos courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee Research Foundation

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Unlike other major universities in the South, the University of Memphis has a big responsibility: As the Mid-South region’s only major research university (outside of the medical research going on over at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center), it’s kind of up to the U of M to bring the ideas of the future to the city of Memphis. That’s why the university, specifically the FedEx Institute of Technology, played host to a Commercial Drone Expo in April, and why it held a “Blockchain for Professionals” workshop earlier this month.

Jasbir Dhaliwal

“Until about six months ago, there was no conversation about blockchain technology in Memphis at all,” says Jasbir Dhaliwal, chief innovation officer for the university and the executive director of the institute. “Our job is to watch these trends and technologies and be flexible and nimble enough to make sure that Memphis has the benefit of them.”

There is a lot going on at the institute, which first opened its high-tech, modern doors in 2003. It houses six interdisciplinary research innovation clusters. Its most successful is the Institute for Intelligent Systems, which, for less intelligent readers (and editors), means that it deals with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Its most high-profile is the Mobile Sensor Data 2 Knowledge (MD2K) cluster, which is the National Institutes of Health-funded collaboration between 12 universities across the country, including Cornell, UCLA and Northwestern. Memphis plays a leadership role in this initiative, which is developing innovative tools to make it easier to gather, analyze and interpret health data generated by mobile and wearable sensors. Other clusters cover cybersecurity, drones, big data and, in a big nod to its benefactor, biologistics. In fact, Dhaliwal points out, the University of Memphis is the first university to have a biologistics research cluster.

In addition to housing the research clusters, the FedEx Institute also operates the university’s Office of Technology Transfer, which licenses the intellectual property created on campus to local and national companies for commercialization. SweetBio, a medical device startup born at the University of Memphis, has developed a dissolvable membrane, derived from honey, that can be used to promote healing after oral surgeries.The company participated in Memphis’ high-profile ZeroTo510 accelerator and has raised $1.15M in funding so far.

Dhaliwal says he’s impressed by Memphis’ startup ecosystem and the infrastructure built around the city’s various incubators and accelerator programs, but he admits that more needs to be done to foster innovation.

“It reminds me a lot of 1995, when the internet was coming,” he says. “We have so many great technologies but we don’t have enough folks who understand them here. We want to be home-grown, but we need more technology companies and more entrepreneurs to move to Memphis.”

One way to make that happen, he says, is for the state of Tennessee to start putting more support (i.e. funding) behind graduate education. “If we had 1,000 more PhD students working on innovation in Memphis, it would completely change the landscape in terms of high-tech entrepreneurship and could put us in the national landscape,” he says.

Dhaliwal says FedEx is taking the lead in having that conversation with state leaders on attracting more graduate students to the world-class research facility. More companies should follow FedEx’s lead, he says, when it comes to fostering innovation in their cities.

“To create a more sophisticated ecosystem, that’s what we need,” he says. “That way we can attract some of the best technology innovators.”

To aid in these goals, Dhaliwal says the institute is focusing on making each of the research innovation clusters as high-profile and as successful as its first two and also making sure the university is producing graduates that area companies want to hire—or better yet, grads who want to start up in the city.

“By and large, the demand for these people in the Memphis area is so strong that many of them are already working for local companies before they finish the program,” he says.

That goes back to what he said about being flexible and nimble. For example, the graduate school, which is housed at the institute, recently launched five new programs in Big Data.

A final goal is getting the word out about what’s going on behind those modern, high-tech doors. Dhaliwal says the university has a strong national reputation. “If you go to Silicon Valley, they’ll know who we are and what we’re good at,” he says. “But we can do a much better job getting the word out locally and regionally.”

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One of the highlights of my 36/86 experience was hearing the two-minute pitches from the all of the startups vying for the big prize. One of the most compelling pitches—to me, at least—was SynapseMX, an Atlanta-based startup that is modernizing airplane maintenance by replacing a paper-intensive process with a software platform. It was compelling because I was sitting there thinking, how is this not the norm already? How is it that aircraft maintenance still relies on basically a ream of paper every time an aircraft gets serviced? The short answer: Regulation.

“Aviation is incredibly regulated due to safety concerns, and along with that regulation comes an audit trail for everything,” explains Shane Ballman, founder of SynapseMX and the former lead for maintenance technology for AirTran. “Just about every part can be tracked from birth to death, meaning when it was manufactured to when it gets scrapped. That’s still done on a lot of paper today—and if something happens to those records, wave goodbye to 30 percent of the aircraft’s value. Fax machines are alive and well, and I talked with a prospective customer just this week who still uses microfiche!”

Enter SynapseMX, which provides a platform for commercial aircraft maintainers to track, plan and accomplish maintenance tasks, including writing compliance records, from any device that can get online. But that’s not all it does. “Then, we take that data and help them understand hidden insights,” Ballman says. “For instance, how much time does it take to perform a certain inspection task? Is there variance between their facilities?”

Startup Lessons Learned the Hard Way

After spending 18 months validating the idea and determining that it was a viable business, Ballman launched the company in April 2015 with a co-founder who is no longer with the company. Ballman wasn’t new to startups, per se, but he did make a rookie mistake: assigning equity to both founders right away. “Even before you take in outside capital, you need to have founders on a vesting schedule,” he says. “It keeps everybody hungry and aligned in the same direction. Don’t skip it.”

Funding has been a challenge for the company, whose leadership team is composed of aircraft maintenance veterans. The company bootstrapped in the beginning, then received seed funding from 500 Startups as a participant in its Batch 15 accelerator. Its most recent investment was from Dynamo, a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based fund and accelerator that is specifically targeting startups focused on improving the “lagging logistics industry.”

“It sounds like it’s been easy, but it’s been a long, hard climb,” Ballman warns. “When people say it’s damn near impossible to raise funds and run a business, they’re right. You won’t be a special snowflake, so be prepared to hustle on fundraising so you can get back to work. When you pitch (and you’ll pitch a lot), don’t bore people. Tell a story, and make it personal for your listener. People remember stories that have an impact on them.”

The Right Location

One gripe Ballman doesn’t have about the startup life? Feeling isolated from the startup community and the subject matter expertise that is necessary for success. The company started out in Newnan, Ga., an Atlanta commuter town and veritable hotbed of aviation experts. “We started the company there for one specific reason: There are a lot of FAA, Delta and Southwest (formerly AirTran) people who live around there,” Ballman says. “That means lots of subject matter experts to chat with, walk through mockups, talk about business processes, etc.”

After some growth, the headquarters moved to Atlanta. “There’s something contagious about being in a startup environment where people are hustling to make deals, and I like being around that energy,” Ballman says.

When he’s not busy running his own startup, he takes some time to help others who are starting theirs. “There’s an amazing—and free!—Pitch Practice meetup every Friday in Atlanta, hosted by my friend Kevin Sandlin, and I go there when I can to provide pitch feedback,” he says.

Ballman also help out as a mentor to younger companies in how to think about things, such as business models, marketing campaigns, investor outreach and the like. “I’m no expert but I’ve learned a few tricks along the way,” he says.

Clear Skies Ahead

So what’s next for SynapseMX? Ballman points out that Airbus recently forecasted that the maintenance and repair services market will be worth over $3 trillion over the next two decades. “Plenty there to keep us motivated,” he says. The company is also keeping its eye on drones and anticipating a market for drone maintenance.

“Drones are on the cusp of a massive tidal wave in commercial usage, and the FAA is going to ensure the same incredibly high level of safety as manned aircraft,” he says. “That means routine preventive maintenance and the logistics surrounding it. We plan to be helping drone operators in five years like we’re helping manned aircraft operators today.”

BONUS AUDIO:  Shane Ballman speaks with Relationary Marketing during 36|86 in June.

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When you think about a startup in North Carolina, your mind might immediately go to the Research Triangle. But as we’ve seen, entrepreneurial innovation is actually happening all over the state—including the coastal town of Wilmington.

There are many success stories from Wilmington’s startup scene, but perhaps none are more interesting—and garnering more attention outside of the region—than Petrics. Founded by Ed Hall last year, Petrics is a pet healthcare technology startup that is developing a sophisticated platform that allows pet owners to better manage their pet’s health.

“Our internet of things consumer pet products and software gives pet owners an automated way to care for their pets as if they were a trained veterinarian, nutritionist or behaviorist without needing all the schooling and education,” says Hall, who is a graduate of UNC-Wilmington’s Cameron School of Business and previously worked at Elite Innovations, Wilmington’s first makerspace. “Pets gain a level of caregiving independence while pet owners can rest assured knowing their pet’s health is being looked after 24/7 so they can spend more time enjoying their pets and less time managing them.”

Petrics was recently selected, among 235 applicants, for the New Ventures Challenge accelerator by Flywheel, located in Winston-Salem. As part of the program, Petrics received a $5,000 investment and is eligible for up to $50,000 at the end of the program. Petrics was the only company from outside North Carolina’s Triad region (Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point) to be selected.

We sat down with Hall to find out more about his company and what it’s like to be a part of Wilmington’s burgeoning startup scene.

Where did the idea for Petrics come from?

The idea for Petrics started because my mom was constantly struggling with her three cats and a dog because they would eat each others food. She would complain to me about the problem, and so I decided to come up with a solution. Once I had some ideas and assumptions on how to solve it, I contacted top animal science schools like NC State and Cornell to ask their experts if the system I was building would be valuable for pet owners and for professionals. They confirmed it would be of significant value, and so the journey began.

When will the technology be ready for pet owners? And how do you plan to market it?

We are still pre-product launch and have been doing testing with our working prototypes. We have been keeping some product details close to the chest until we are a little closer to launch. But, expect to see some more details coming out in the near future on our website. We will be selling to pet owners directly, however, we are currently looking at some potential partnerships with organizations that support the need to prevent the obesity epidemic for cats and dogs, and want to provide the best solution for diet and health management for pet owners. I will say we have had significant support from animal hospitals and are looking to speak with more.

How would you describe the startup scene in Wilmington? And what are its biggest strengths and weaknesses?

Wilmington’s startup scene is really growing. It has been so great to see all the entrepreneurs, supporters and activity in the area. Just recently Petrics was selected to present at the NCTA State of Technology conference along with three other tech startups from Wilmington, Likeli, Lapetus and Performance Culture. I honestly didn’t think I would have made it up there with companies such as these. I was over the moon when I found out we made it on stage with companies I look up to. There were only six selections made, and so having four of six tech companies being from Wilmington at a big tech conference like that is a big statement when you consider we are competing with Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Charlotte, Winston-Salem and pretty much every other city more known for tech startups.

People like Jim Roberts, George Taylor, Brett Martin, Ron Vetter, Ann Revell-Pechar, Mike Hunter, Liz Marion and Andrew Williams, and organizations like TekMountain, The UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Elite Innovations, Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington (NEW) and the SBTDC have really helped to culminate this growth and inspire the community of entrepreneurs that didn’t know where to go or how to tackle their ideas. Let’s face it, these things would not be possible without supporters like these, and that, in my opinion is one of our biggest strengths.

The only thing I notice as a potential weakness is sometimes efforts can become isolated to groups, siloed if you will.  I personally feel we could achieve a lot more as a community if more synergies and win-wins were found between efforts across organizations and groups. Some groups have better access to funding where other groups have better access to networking, mentorships or partnerships. It shouldn’t be treated as a this or that option.

You’ve had some success in securing funding, so what would you say is your biggest piece of advice to other startups when it comes to this very daunting process?

Haha, I’m still trying to figure that out myself. Definitely find investors, networks or funds that invest in your space and have experience in it. For instance, if you have a potential investor that has only invested in software their whole life, then it can be a more difficult and longer sell to get them to be comfortable with a hardware startup to invest into. Additionally, if you find groups that have experience in your space, they will also more than likely have a lot of experience or networks to accelerate your company by filling gaps.

As you’re trying to raise money, what impact does that have on your participation in your startup ecosystem? Do you ever feel like you’re in competition with your comrades? If so, how do you overcome that feeling?

That’s actually a very good question. I would say there are times I feel that way, but I’m also happy for everyone. It’s a part of the game we all signed up for, and let’s face it, it is a zero-sum game. Each investor has limits on how much they are willing to invest based on income and net worth. So, a group may only have enough room for a certain amount of investments until one of their existing companies exits. If all the active investors have invested their max, then other companies must seek investment somewhere else, which can be hard for a startup since that may be the only network or investment community they know.

Making mistakes—it happens to all founders. What’s the biggest or most surprising one you’ve made and what would your advice be to other founders?

Try to get sales and validation with customers as early as possible. Early on, I spent more time on the ‘how’ it would work and focusing on building a working prototype thinking it would lead to faster investment. But, customer validation and sales holds more weight with investors and proving out a concept than the working prototype. You can sell an idea of a product to a customer just from high fidelity Looks-Like renders and animations and explaining your product value proposition on the ‘why’ they should buy it. Even a great explainer video can go a long way! We could’ve spent significantly less time and money on just that and doing customer surveys and seeing if people would buy our product and have plenty of data, feedback, customer validation and pre-orders for the investors. People buy products online all the time without physically touching or seeing the product and there are definitely ways to take advantage of that buying behavior.

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Anna Stout, founder of Astute Communications

Like many entrepreneurs, Anna Stout always knew she’d start a business. In fact, as a kid, she started several companies. There was Clover Creations, her greeting card business. There was the ironing service that served only one, albeit very important client (her mom). There was even the mudpie factory she ran briefly out of her parents’ greenhouse.

“Granted, all of these businesses were ‘pre-revenue,’ but I got a lot of support from my family,” she says. “The businesses were silly, but I do believe those early starts were an indicator of a true entrepreneurial spirit.”

Today, Stout is the founder of Nashville, Tennessee-based Astute Communications, a full-service digital services agency that she runs with her husband, Ryan Stout, two employees and a team of talented contractors. Since its founding in 2013, Astute’s clients have hailed mostly from Tennessee, but the company’s reach is expanding to other Southern states.

“We have several in Mississippi and Louisiana,” she says. “An odd North Carolinian, too. All Southern at this point, though not necessarily by design.”

Startup Southerner sat down with Stout recently (we ran into her at 36|86, too!) to learn more about her company and the challenges she faces as a founder.

Q: A digital services agency is not a new concept, so what sets Astute Communications apart from the competition?
A: As I’ve built my company I’ve learned a lot about the difference that care and quality in marketing can make. I’ve watched a lot of companies like mine put their foot on the gas and leave their core values in the dust on the side of the road, all to chase a dollar. Don’t get me wrong, my business doesn’t run on any kind of alternative source of energy, but It’s important to me that I can continue to offer custom solutions for businesses that address their unique challenges and priorities. That I’m not just taking any business that I can get, regardless of the fit for everyone involved. And that I don’t let the quality of work or service that we offer our clients suffer in the interest of getting a check from someone who doesn’t understand the value of what we’re doing.

Q: What has been the biggest challenge facing Astute as it moves from startup phase to bona fide small business?
A: We’re in a really unique phase in our growth right now that is revealing some new challenges that I never anticipated. One thing that struck me recently was the feeling of giving up some ownership of my company. I spent a lot of time early on running the business by myself, which meant I never had to answer to anyone. I made decisions, and moved on. Now there is a lot more consideration given to why’s and how’s of our day to day. It’s a good thing, but it’s hard some days. It’s hard to resist the urge to veto everything. But I know that it’s important for me to listen to the insights of all of the other members of the team–I learn a lot from them.

Q: Has Ryan been involved with the company since its beginning, or did he join later? And, is it challenging to work with your spouse?
A: He joined the company just over a year ago, and has been such an asset. I didn’t ask him to join my company because he’s my husband; I asked him because he’s intelligent, tenacious and has a work ethic like no one I’ve ever seen. We’ve increased our profits by 150% in the time since he joined Astute, and are on track to double that by the end of the year. Working with your spouse comes with its own unique set of challenges, however. Communication can be tricky sometimes, and Ryan and I are both a little on the stubborn side. But every day I wake up and go to bed knowing that we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.

Q: Thinking back to when you started the company, are you surprised or not surprised that the company is where it is today?
A: I officially started my company in early 2013 when I resigned from a web design and development position with an ad agency in town. I freelanced for a while before that under the same name, but 2013 was when I went all in with Astute. It’s been the slowest, fastest, most wild ride I’ve ever been on. I’m simultaneously amazed by how far we’ve come, and frustrated by slow progress. It’s hard to imagine where I thought I would be in 2016. I guess I’m a ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ kinda gal in that way. I just knew that I needed to build this thing, and so I’m doing it. And I hope it helps. And I hope that people get it–That we care, you know?

Q: On your LinkedIn profile, you say you’re proud to be a woman in tech. Can you expand on that? Are there challenges for women in tech and are any of those challenges specific to being located in the South? 
A: I have learned a lot over the past year about the gender biases that exist in our society. And realizing how ingrained they are… in everyone, in me, even…has really made me realize that I can play an important role as a woman in tech. I don’t have the answers to ‘curing’ sexism, but I do believe that learning how to talk about it is an important first step. And that being here, a part of this community, and just showing up every day … that can help too. I’m not great at talking about it yet, but I’m trying to get better. I’m trying to learn how to lead with words and actions as a business leader who is a woman.

As for your question about the South, well, I don’t know. I haven’t done much business north of the Mason-Dixon line. I don’t think the biases are unique to the South, though their manifestations might be sometimes, Honey.

Q: Do you have any specific anecdotes you could share about being a woman in tech and a female founder?
A: I have some stories, certainly, thought most of them are nothing more than off-handed comments. I did have a potential client kiss me on the top of my head one time. How many times does that happen to a male business owner!?

Mostly, it’s been pretty mild stuff for me. I’m careful about setting boundaries, and I don’t tolerate much. I’ve been lucky, though. I’ve heard some insanely degrading stories from incredibly strong, capable women.

Q: What has been the biggest mistake you made as a founder? And how did you come back from it?
A: Early on I took on a complex web application project that I didn’t know how to build. I underestimated how difficult it would be to find a reliable team to develop the custom functionalities and it cost me and the client both a lot of money. After several false starts and my desperate efforts to find someone who could build it, I finally had to resign from the project. I did my best to absorb the costs that I could. I will always feel bad for providing such a horrible experience to people who trusted me. I carry that project with me in every client meeting that I attend. Every discovery, every proposal. Now, we do no take on projects that we can’t handle in house. I will never put another client (or myself for that matter) in that position again.

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Four Athens supports the startup ecosystem in Athens, Georgia, in a number of innovative ways. There’s the coworking and incubator space, accelerator program, meetups and mixers, and even the coding classes for kids and adults. It’s all in an effort to change the reality of this startling statistic: Despite the presence of Georgia’s largest public university (University of Georgia), Athens has a per capita income that is 23 percent lower than the state average.

We are not economists, but our belief is that there are a ton of low-wage, service industry-oriented jobs due to the large student population and a lack of ‘professional’ jobs in the area to retain qualified, higher paying employees,” explains Tamara Neff, head of community outreach and marketing for Four Athens. Here are some other highlights from a conversation we had with Neff about the cool things Four Athens is doing to support and encourage startups.

What would you say is Athens’ biggest challenge facing its startup ecosystem? Finding high-quality entrepreneurs who are excited to tackle the challenge of building big companies.

What about its biggest strength? And what makes Athens most unique from, say, another similarly sized ecosystem? We are a younger community, with a vibrant cultural scene that attracts a wide range of people. We are heavily focused on giving without expectation, and believe in helping to build each other up rather than competing outright. We are situated next to a very well-regarded research university which pumps out thousands of new graduates annually. These graduates go on to work throughout the world, and therefore those entrepreneurs who choose to stay and build a company here have an alumni network that is global. In addition, the research created by the university presents tons of commercial opportunities for the right entrepreneurs.

UGA is in Athens, but does that brainpower tend to go elsewhere? Like Atlanta? And what role can an organization like Four Athens play in keeping that talent in Athens? We believe in not only keeping talent local, but in connecting the global talent generated by UGA and harnessing it to help build companies locally. Those far-flung alumni can help with funding, mentorship, and introductions to potential customers.

What is Four Athens’ relationship with UGA? Is there a formal one? There is no formal relationship. We currently operate an Idea Accelerator, which is partially funded by UGA, and hold a twice annual Students2Startups event on campus to connect students to opportunities with local startup companies. We also work with tons of student entrepreneurs directly from the University.

Talk about the accelerator program. When is the next one? Four Athens’ accelerator program runs twice a year (fall and spring). The most recent cohort had nearly 40 applicants, and 12 teams finished the program. The next session begins in September 2016, and the application will go live July 1 at www.fourathens.com/accelerator.

Let’s talk about the coding classes Four Athens offers. What was the catalyst? There were two sparks to the program: (1) a need for talent within our growing companies and (2) a willingness of a few UGA students and community members to expand opportunities for people in the community to learn to code.

Some of the coding classes are offered in conjunction with local schools. When you talk to teachers about coding, are they coming from a place of basic knowledge? Not necessarily that they know how to code, but that they know what it is? Or, is it a situation where you’re blowing minds a little bit? Most people are familiar with the fact that technology is encroaching on all aspects of their lives, but they may not have stopped to think about how all-encompassing it is, and how it will continue to do so. So we talk about future opportunities for today’s students and paint the picture of a future where everyone will need to understand some facet of coding.

We host in-school and weekend classes that are not tied to any particular school. For instance, we are offering code classes during the weekend of Athfest, the big annual music festival in town linked to local education efforts more broadly, and continue to pursue strategic partnerships in the area to offer more classes. All our classes can be found at fourathens.com/classes and the youth classes specifically at https://www.fourathens.com/youthclasses/.

Has the response to your coding classes been greater than anticipated? The demand has been great. Satisfying the demand, particularly with a large portion of the population being lower income, has been challenging due to financial constraints. Many families understand the importance of tech education, but are simply unable to afford it. We have set up a scholarship fund to help offset the cost of our classes so that students can take advantage of these opportunities regardless of income level. More about our scholarship fund can be found here: www.fourathens.com/donate.

What about the adult classes? Are they comprehensive enough that someone could get a job coding after taking them? We currently teach introductory and intermediate level courses. Numerous students who have taken those two levels have subsequently been employed by local companies. As that base of talent grows, we will begin offering higher-level courses, internship programs and other opportunities to place people directly into open jobs in the community.

Finally, what’s the etymology of Four Athens? We started with the concept that you need four “people” to bootstrap a startup: as coined by Rei Inamoto at SXSW in March 2012, it takes a hipster, hacker and a hustler to build a good startup team. We think you also need the community at large (service providers, mentors, supporters and cheerleaders) to help in the journey, so we added and made it four. Plus, it’s a nice play on doing this “for” Athens.

The post The Company That’s Supporting and Encouraging Startups in Athens, Georgia appeared first on Startup Southerner.

When the power of Facebook alerted me to yesterday’s Power of Inclusion luncheon hosted by the Nashville chapter of Cable, the premier leadership organization for women’s professional development, I jumped at the chance to attend in light of our ongoing #entreprenuriALL initiative. And when I found out that celebrity entrepreneur Kwame Jackson (from Apprentice Season 1 fame) was the keynote speaker, I decided to put my Startup Southerner hat on and figure out what wise words from Jackson I could share with our readers here.

Jackson, who originally hails from Charlotte, North Carolina, but currently calls New York home, started off by talking about the “Southern Hospitality Extravanganza” he had experienced so far in Nashville. You know the drill—sweet tea, y’all, biscuits, etc. He touched on a few key points about inclusion. At one point, he pointed out that blacks and women often are fighting a brand even before they enter a room. There were definitely more than a few nods in the audience, which was mostly women, many of them black.

“We are living in the dawn of a new America—changing faces, changing races, changing attitudes,” he said. “It’s not only more brown, but more great, more urban, more gay, more wired, yet still divided.”

He challenged the audience to bust through roadblocks and tired thinking that contribute to a lack of diversity and inclusion in today’s workplaces. “A good idea or next-level thinking is not just born in the best neighborhood…our genius is spread throughout our nation.” And when you don’t include them, you’re not getting access to their great ideas.

The presentation was half inclusion, half how to lose and still win.

“It’s important to realize we can all lose sometimes,” he explained. “The setback is the set up for the comeback.”

Another gem that I jotted down: “My mom used to [repeat a quote from Thomas Edison], ‘Opportunities are often dressed in overalls and look like work.'” Was Thomas Edison a Startup Southerner? He sure sounds like one.

The post What Kwame Jackson Has to Say About Inclusion appeared first on Startup Southerner.

We’re sort of torn on the concept of startups choosing a location based on its startup tax incentives. We did hear from one business that moved from the Ohio side of Cincinnati to the Kentucky side of Cincinnati because Kentucky had better tax breaks. But outside of the Kentucky-Ohio border, we’re not sure it’s happening all that much. After all, there are myriad other factors that go into a decision like starting a business. One thing we are certain of? All sorts of startup tax incentives exist all over the South and you’d be smart to make sure you’re taking full advantage of what your state offers. In the following list, we provide some highlights of startup tax incentives in each state and links to the state government pages that outline their tax incentive programs in whole.

Alabama

• Hiring credits, including for veterans and full-time employees
• Tax credits for starting a business in “new markets” or economically disadvantaged communities.

http://www.edpa.org/location-assistance/taxes-incentives/
http://revenue.alabama.gov/taxincentives/incentivesum.pdf

Arkansas

• Job creation incentives
• R&D tax credit for research done in conjunction with Arkansas universities
• Capital Investment credits for projects valued at $250,000 or more
• Equity investment tax credit to encourage outside investment
• Targeted business incentives for high-wage, knowledge-based industries

http://www.arkansasedc.com/incentives/incentives

Florida

• Targeted business incentives for high value-added industries
• Incentives for starting or growing a business in a rural community
• Incentives for starting or growing a business in an urban area

https://www.enterpriseflorida.com/why-florida/business-climate/incentives/

Georgia

• Multiple jobs tax credits, including one for high-wage jobs
• Digital media tax credit (film, television, interactive games and animation)

http://www.georgia.org/competitive-advantages/tax-credits/

Kentucky

• Incentives for expansion and business creation, including enhanced incentives for business activity in certain zones
• Direct loan program
• SBIR funds matching
• Incentives for high-tech, environmental and energy independence
• Tax credit for angel investors

http://thinkkentucky.com/Locating_Expanding/kybizince.aspx

Louisiana

• Digital interactive media and software development tax credit (link to startup southerner article)
• Angel investor tax credit
• R&D tax credits
• Enterprise zone tax credits
• Louisiana Technology Park for high-tech startups

http://www.opportunitylouisiana.com/incentives

Mississippi

• Jobs tax credits
• Growth and Prosperity Program for economically disadvantaged areas

https://www.mississippi.org/home-page/our-advantages/incentives/complete-incentives-list/

North Carolina

• Tier designations encourage development in less prosperous areas of the state
• Job development investment grant’
• Inventory tax exemption
• Interactive digital media tax credit

http://edpnc.com/relocate-or-expand/incentives/

South Carolina

• Research and development credit
• Corporate headquarters credit
• Job tax credit

http://sccommerce.com/node/2315

Tennessee

• Job tax credits for at 25 new hires
• Sales and Use tax exemptions

http://www.tnecd.com/advantages/incentives-grants/

The post Startup Tax Incentives by State appeared first on Startup Southerner.

Eventbrite is one of those cool tech companies that has planted some of its West Coast roots right here in the South. What started as a customer service outpost in Nashville, Tennessee, has grown to also include engineering and sales. “The talent and drive of the people we’re seeing here in Nashville is awesome,”says Bryan Mayes, Nashville head of engineering. “That’s leading us to continue to lean into the opportunity of expanding our presence here.

And they’re just getting started. Eventbrite, the world’s largest self-service ticketing platform for events large and small, is hiring to expand its sales and engineering operations, and some of those positions will probably be filled from within the company.

“We’re constantly trying to build career opportunities for people on all of our teams,” Mayes says. “Eventbrite is all about helping people grow personally and professionally, and are highly supportive of internal mobility.”

That’s just one glimpse into the kind of culture Eventbrite lives and breathes every day, and it’s reflected in its product. Mayes says the Eventbrite culture “seeps into the product.”

“If you have a great culture of transparency, respect and honesty, then that is reflected in the products and services you build, and the support you provide to your customers,” he says.

The culture is also built around assembling a team that reflects the wide spectrum events on Eventbrite—musicians, marathon runners, foodies, fundraisers. But they vet for these interests specifically during the hiring process.

“Usually when you find people who are passionate and driven, they naturally live really interesting lives with unique backgrounds,” Mayes says. “We are looking to build a diverse culture in every way, and I think when you have that as your foundation, you’re going to build a group of people that embody a wide spectrum of interests.”

Of course, every startup wants to hire the best person for the job, but Mayes says that should go beyond just hiring the best coder or sales rep.

“Personally two of the most important traits I look for are people who demonstrate that they are self-motivated, and are always looking for personal growth. That curiosity and drive is not the only path to success, but I believe there’s high correlation between those who learn and build on their own, and those who become the highest performers.”

Mayes says it’s important to have a clear idea about what your company stands for, and to be deliberate about how that manifests in every decision you make. “The reality is that the DNA of Eventbrite founders—Kevin Hartz, Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage—are at the heart of our culture, even 10 years later. Clearly communicate those values to the team, and they will embraces and embody them.”

As the company’s presence in Nashville continues to grow, Mayes suspects a little bit of our culture—you know, that Southern one—will be seeping into Eventbrite’s.

“Nashville has affected Eventbrite by re-energizing the San Francisco team with a startup spirit influenced by our motivated and mighty team,” he says.  “On a lighter note, we shouldn’t forget that we’ve also created a deep appreciation for Nashville Hot Chicken. I think most of the Britelings (Eventbrite employees) that visit from our offices around the world are fans of Pepperfire.”

This post was made possible by support from Sifted, a Nashville-based startup.

The post Inside Out: How Eventbrite Matches Product to Company Culture appeared first on Startup Southerner.

For the past five years, I’ve been keeping a secret. Actually, I guess you could say I’ve been lying—to a lot of people. Well, it’s time to come clean, so here goes: I’m a working mother. I have two young children, and with the exception of Monday, Wednesday and Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., I’m basically a stay-at-home mom.

Wow, it feels to get that out. Don’t get me wrong: People who know me know that I have kids. I’m not THAT good at keeping secrets. But people who meet me as a writer, who are on the receiving end of interview requests and questions about healthcare or history or business or whatever else I write about—those people have no idea. I always make sure to feign limitless availability and then scramble and yell for my husband to come home and watch the kids when a healthcare executive wants to do an interview at the exact moment preschool lets out. My new favorite way of squeezing one more “I’m available, I’m lying to myself and you about being a stay-at-home mom!” hour out of my day is doing interviews in my car in the preschool parking lot. It’s genius, really. I can make the call at 2:40, wrap things up at 2:55 and still have plenty of time to breathlessly sprint inside to avoid paying that $10-per-minute late fee.

I could continue to keep up this charade, or, you know, I could be honest and let these people, many of whom I’m sure have children themselves, know what’s up so we can work together to find a time that works for both of us.

Do I really think they’ll look at their email and see that they’re dealing with a mother of young kids and throw their hands up and say, “Hrmph, a working mother! I won’t give you this interview! You clearly don’t take your job seriously!” Yes, yes I do think that’s what they’ll say.

I have either wrongly assumed it or we as a society have agreed that mothers, especially those who have the descriptor stay-at-home in front of their names, couldn’t possibly be as good at their jobs as non-mothers.

But guess what? I’m really good at my job. This is me bragging about myself for a minute. When the people I interview, you know, the ones I’ve been lying to, see the articles I’ve written, they’re impressed. And that’s probably with them picturing me sitting at whatever they think a writer’s desk should look like. Can you imagine what they’d think if they saw how things really get done? I’d like to think it would change their minds a little bit about what it means to be a working mother.

Another reason I think I’ve been lying this whole time is that I’ve wrongly assumed that being a mother shouldn’t matter. And in a perfect world, it shouldn’t. But I can tell you and I’ve talked to many people who can tell you, there is a special set of challenges, expectations and assumptions made about “us” as a whole. And my failure to disclose being a mother just perpetuates all of it.

So this is me standing up for myself and standing up for working mothers everywhere. I’m a mother and I work and I’m really good at my job. Phew.

The post The One Thing I Do That Hurts Working Mothers Everywhere appeared first on Startup Southerner.