The eight companies participating in Launch Tennessee’s master accelerator program, The TENN, stopped in Nashville this week as part of a five-city roadshow. Hosted by Emma, the stop in Nashville gave the entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their ideas to a packed house. (Nashville podcaster Clark Buckner was also there to capture some great insights from the entrepreneurs; check out his audio interviews in this post.)

Here are some observations I made about the state of Tennessee entrepreneurship after attending this event:

1. Entrepreneurship isn’t just for the young ones. From coverage on Mark Zuckerberg and Elizabeth Holmes, it’s easy to be led to believe that entrepreneurs start young. But from seeing the leaders of these eight companies, the reality is that businesses are being started at any age.
2. A Tennessee-born venture can be in any industry. We’re not just about music and healthcare. Innovations in construction, 3D printing (Branch Technology) and even divorce law (DivorceSecure) are all represented in Tennessee. And the variety of industry-based accelerator programs that are available in Tennessee now may be helping them move their ideas.
3. Each product aims to solve a very specific problem. Everyone wants to develop a product that would serve everyone, but that’s really not the way to frame your product, at least in the beginning. The roadshow really gave me better insight into how these companies frame their pitches and their target customer.
4. There’s a lot of white men in the game, but that’s changing. Out of the eight pitches on Wednesday, only one was pitched by a woman (Sing and Spell). A similar ratio was also observed in the crowd. I could take this visual as discouraging, but I prefer to see it as an opportunity for growth.

Photo by Walker Chrisman

Audio interviews by Clark Buckner

The post The State of Tennessee Entrepreneurship at #TheTENN Roadshow appeared first on Startup Southerner.

The hardest part of owning a startup is always the beginning: the process of turning your idea into a company with a working business model and appropriate funding. Luckily, there is a multitude of accelerator programs in the South available to entrepreneurs who want to launch their startups quickly.

Start Co. is a Memphis, Tennessee-based nonprofit organization that offers three different accelerator programs, each with its own area of focus.

The first of Start Co.’s accelerators, Seed Hatchery, focuses exclusively on startups with missions in the B2B software and hardware solutions sector. The 15-week program provides startups with a $25,000 seed fund and connections with industry experts, mentors and investment partners. Since 2011, Seed Hatchery has helped launch 26 emerging technology companies, including DivorceSecure and LendMed, and has seen graduates acquire more than $12.7 million in investments.

Start Co.’s next two accelerators, Upstart and Sky High, are what make the program a little more unique. Upstart, created specifically for women-led tech startups, provides all the same resources as Seed Hatchery, but features a curriculum that “reflects how women work, learn and lead.” Upstart works with partners like AWE and The Jump Fund to provide personal and professional development for women founders while they prepare their startups for launch.

Sky High is Start Co.’s accelerator for social impact tech startups. This accelerator is for nonprofits that already have—or are not currently seeking—funding. Sky High provides startups with services, mentors and connections to foundations, governments and high-net-worth individuals. Start Co. boasts that 75 percent of Sky High accelerator grads, including CodeCrew and The College Initiative, receive investment post-accelerator.

Start Co.’s deadline to apply is March 1. Before you click “Submit,” be sure to check out these tips on how to make your application stand out.

The post Accelerator Spotlight: Start Co., in Memphis, TN appeared first on Startup Southerner.

“How Soon Is Now?” is a column dedicated to tech startup culture and community from the perspective of a software developer in Nashville, Tennessee. His opinions are his own.

The year is certainly off to an interesting start. Silicon Valley looks to be in a downward spiral with several layoffs, and the media is pumping out article after article calling for “blood in the water” and a “unicorn reckoning.”

Hyperbole sells, but the insane valuations everyone has been calling out for years are beginning to correct themselves—and fast. It’s nothing to celebrate or make light of, as these down rounds in a system built to protect the investors are hurting employees most.

With the correction going on in Silicon Valley, I’m sure there are plenty of folks feeling somewhat vindicated about our situation here in Nashville. Local investors will get the luxury of spinning their capital investments, or lack thereof, as a stroke of genius. Though I’m sure we’ll be sweeping a couple things under the rug, like a company that raised $1.77 million, garnered local awards, scored one of those super-cool oversized checks from Steve Case and still, somehow, managed to criticize a lack of capital on their way out. Or another local media favorite that wouldn’t be out of place on an episode of “The Walking Dead.” It’s not hard to see why investors would turn a cold shoulder to technology.

Tennesseeans are still processing the $200 million taxpayer disaster that is TNInvestco, which managed to make $83 million disappear before a single dollar was invested. A much more reasonable tax credit is in the works for the next phase, but the real problem to solve isn’t about capital at all.

We need a cultural shift, and that shift should be built around our makers and doers instead of the “business elite.”

I spoke with a developer visiting from Boston recently and she asked me what co-working spot to check out so she could connect with local technologists and get a vibe for the scene. I struggled for an answer and bought time describing the great technology community here: frequent meetups on a huge range of topics, companies like Emma that are supporting our scene. None of these really answered her question, and in the end all I could suggest were a couple of coffee shops. Nashville has no shortage of co-working locations, but none of them are heavy on tech-based companies or come to mind as standing out for supporting our technology community.

That conversation helped me realize how physically segmented our startups and technologists are during our workdays. We’re scattered all over town in various office spaces, working from home or out of coffee shops. Slack keeps us connected, and the meetups are great, but developers do have a tendency to segment off by language and framework with little discussion around the business impact our technical solutions provide. Our technology community needs to find an entrepreneurial spirit that brings us all together to support everyone’s endeavors, to celebrate successes, commiserate in failures and, ultimately, work together to build our community that makes us stronger on the whole.

I doubt this dichotomy between technology and business is anything exclusive to Nashville, and it could all stem from our colleges and institutions having entrepreneur programs catered to MBA students. With this schism engrained, a “wait for them to come to me” attitude persists and carries over into our careers and seems clearly on display at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. The halls and meetups at the EC are filled with salespeople, marketers and service providers mingling and passing business cards around. It makes sense that eager entrepreneurs would seek out the EC, but with a lack of technologists around, things go from being about solving problems to being about generating a sales funnel. It’s a big reason why agencies thrive in this town and it keeps our business and technology communities living inside their own respective echo chambers.

In his book, “Startup Communities,” Brad Feld does an excellent job calling out similar situations for startup communities around the country that aren’t working. Feld explains the difference between Feeders (investors, mentors, government, universities and service providers) and Leaders (makers and entrepreneurs). While Feeders are vital to the ecosystem and provide a much-needed service, a startup community must be driven by the Leaders. Unfortunately, we’re short on Leaders in Nashville, leaving the Feeders to run the show. And while I’m sure the cocktail parties and award shows are great, they’re not bringing us any closer to being a community driven by Leaders.

Technologists are going through a time of incredible opportunity right now. Never before has a trade where a degree is moot had labor costs this high and so much potential to disrupt. Never before has the grip of the business elite been this threatened, but it’s feeling like we’re losing that hold. With the funnel tightening on Silicon Valley investments, you can expect the next round to be funded by the powers that be. We’re seeing a similar situation in Nashville, with our accelerator programs sponsored by massive music, publishing and soon, healthcare corporations. The goal no longer being to find new ideas that disrupt, but to maintain control and grow an already massive ecosystem through the fresh ideas of others.

While we’re continually sold on the idea of a STEM shortage, even with no evidence to support it, technology wages have stagnated. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics makes headlines with its 10-year growth outlook for web and software developers, but you’re not likely to find a mention of their predicted decline in computer programmers. And while it makes sense that software development jobs will continue to grow, it will be interesting to see what the correction in the valley does when morale causes a dispersal of talent that could bottleneck a pipeline around the country already picky enough that the average interview process takes 35 days. Meanwhile, we’re still churning out developers with the promise of six-figure salaries and great stock options, conveniently leaving out the bits about executives conspiring to keep wages lower.

I’m all for teaching people to code, as it brings fresh voices, improves diversity and roots out the nonsense. But let’s at least be conscious that the goal of the learn-to-code movement isn’t to bring six-figure salaries to more people, but to increase supply and cheapen labor overall.

The growth that software development has seen in the last decade is incredible. We’ve seen cycles like this before, but with the excitement around technology and sheer number of developers coming into the fold, we need to acknowledge that it’s not enough to learn to code or even be a “10x developer.” We must evolve our attitude toward business and our business sense to stay relevant, especially in Tennessee, where we find ourselves ranked 41st in innovation. We can do better and we will do better, but it starts with acknowledging our failings so we can work towards the solution.

As a software developer with a passion for leveraging technology to find solutions, I don’t think I’m alone in feeling ostracized by the EC. Whether it’s a problem with leadership lacking a technical background, a reliance on investors who don’t understand technology or the lack of desire from technologists to get involved, what’s actually boring is a deadlock that keeps one side complaining about a lack of capital and the other side complaining about a lack of “spectacular deals.”

If it’s not there for us and it’s something we want, then we need to work to find it, foster it or create it ourselves. Let’s work to build the community we want to exist. Let’s focus on solving problems we want to solve, while educating ourselves and our peers. Once we’re successful, everyone else will be knocking down our door to get in.

The post The Cyclomatic Complexity of Nashville appeared first on Startup Southerner.

It is accepted truth that many software developers run on, among other beverages, coffee. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to find that Pedal Java, a new coffee venture in Knoxville, was started by Andrew Mrozkowski, a software developer with more than 25 years of experience writing ECMA-based languages. And with that many years of writing code in various office spaces, he has certainly encountered many cups of office coffee, which he says “is almost always terrible, undrinkable swill.”

His pursuit to have better coffee breaks at an office initially led to buying gadgets for making coffee, such as crank grinders and kettles, to sample all the locally roasted beans. Soon, he was making drinks for coworkers and friends.

“I just got better at making great coffee drinks in small spaces,” he says.

As the name correctly suggests, Pedal Java is a coffee shop on a bicycle, with an actual kitchen sink. Utilizing the mobility of the business, Pedal Java makes pour-over coffees and lattes available at events and gatherings that happen in areas that Mrozkowski calls “coffee dead zones.” Since launching his business last fall, Pedal Java has served its coffee near sporting events, musical performances and street fairs.

Mrozkowski’s love of coffee started at an early age. “My dear, departed mother loved coffee,” says Mrozkowski, who grew up in Asheville, North Carolina. At the age of 8, he would take sips from her coffee cup; by the time he was 12, he’d make a pot of coffee for both of them.

“When I left for college at UNC Greensboro, she gave me a four-cup mini Mr. Coffee and cackled with laughter when I told her I put cream in the pot before brewing and then used the same pot for drinking,” he recalls.

Mrozkowski, who is still freelancing as a developer, plans to build a Pedal Java franchise that would allow him to leave software development altogether. But he believes that in some ways, his programming experience is what taught him many lessons that helped bring him to entrepreneurship.

“Software taught me there is always more than one way to skin a cat, but solutions that are the simplest are almost always the best,” he says. “And I wanted Pedal Java to find those people and bring hot fresh coffee and espresso drinks right to their desks with a smile.”

And for Pedal Java, launching his street-level startup has been a success, partly because of what Knoxville offers. “For me, Knoxville represented a city poised between old, southern charm and energetic, entrepreneurial growth,” he says. “Knoxville embraces its historic roots in music, art, architecture and business.”

He adds that Knox County is also large enough to allow huge companies and manufacturing quick access to I-40 and I-75, making it a great job market with terrific housing values.

Mrozkowski also credits local businesses, including Adventure RV, Master Battery, the Golden Roast coffee roasters and Echelon Cycles, for helping guide him in the building of the physical Pedal Java equipment, as well as keeping the machine running. “Whether they helped me once or weekly, they are all appreciated, and I sing the local praises to anyone who wants to know.”

Photo Credit: Abigail Williamson

The post Software Developer Pedals Way to New Coffee Business in Knoxville appeared first on Startup Southerner.

Audra Harvey, co-founder of abrasiveMedia in Nashville, Tennessee, grew up in a diverse arts community in Edmond, Oklahoma. “I was constantly surrounded by artists of different kinds,” she explains, “so when I went off into the world, I just expected that was normal.”

But when Harvey moved away from her hometown—and eventually to Nashville—she realized her experience of the arts had been anything but normal. She found that, despite Nashville’s reputation as one of America’s most creative cities, artists often struggled to connect with each other, even within their own genres. Connection between genres, then, was virtually nonexistent.

So in 2004, Harvey—with her husband, Justin, and fellow artist Andrew Collins—founded the small, multi-genre arts group to bridge the gap between artistic genres and the artists who participate in them. The initial purpose of the group was to encourage an environment in which one was allowed to create with whatever tools one wished to use, with no rules or requirements.

Harvey’s artists’ collective put on small shows and exhibits for six years, and eventually they began holding forums that paired local artists with individuals working in the field of social justice. “It took a long time to figure out what we were really doing,” Harvey says. “In 2010, we decided that we either needed to quit, or figure out how to make it a thing.”

It was then that Harvey reached out to some leaders in the arts community who helped her identify the group’s mission, and guided her through the process of becoming a nonprofit organization. “I sat down with them and took a lot of notes and basically did exactly what I was told until I knew more of what I was doing,” she says. “And it worked, is working; we’re still growing.”

Of course, growing a successful nonprofit organization has come with its share of challenges. A more recent challenge is the responsibility that has come with the organization’s growth and recognition. “We are beholden to far more people now than when we started,” Harvey says. “If we screw up, more people see it, and it affects more people. That’s something I think about a lot.”

AbrasiveMedia now boasts year-round programming, two artists-in-residence and an active presence in the Nashville arts community. The group hosts fitness, dance and fine arts classes five days a week. It participates in a monthly neighborhood art crawl and hosts regular events both for its own artists and for artists in the community. This year, abrasiveMedia is finishing two long-term projects, including “Th3 Anomaly” from artist-in-residence David Landry.

Landry joined the group in 2011 after proposing to blend fine art with comic book-style narrative in a walk-through graphic novel experience. Landry was inspired to begin this project when he observed the role fine art had taken in the Nashville community. “Very few people, myself included, were as excited to go to an art gallery as they were to go to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster, and I adore fine art,” he says. “Most children dreaded the boredom of having to walk through a fine art gallery. I wanted to change that.”

Four years later, Landry’s project, which consists of 321 paintings in more than 2,000 square feet of gallery space, is open to the public.

The post AbrasiveMedia: Helping Connect Artists to Their Community appeared first on Startup Southerner.

Last September, Nashville, Tennessee-based Girls to the Moon held its inaugural “campference,” a one-day event where more than 300 girls and their caregivers learned about confidence, creativity, innovation and more from 18 expert speakers, including doctors, engineers and entrepreneuers. The event sold out, and its hashtag, #GTTM15, was trending during the event, giving co-founders Courtenay Rogers, Courtney Seiter and Knight Stivender enough proof that what they created was ready to grow.

“Our first event was truly a success,” says Rogers. “As founders, we know the importance of events like ours, but it’s great to have validation from such a broad audience. We’ve had people reach out to us and ask to be a sponsor and in my experience, that doesn’t happen often.”

This year, Girls to the Moon plans to add three smaller events to the roster, in addition to the campference in September. A Valentine’s Day workshop this month will focus on finding love from the inside out, while a business lab, slated for July, will put participants at the helm of their very own high-tech lemonade stands.

Stivender says she sees Girls to the Moon as an extension of Nashville’s startup scene.

“Where they leave off, we pick up, or pre-empt, with peer counseling, inspiration and connection to community leaders and programs,” she says. “We’ve seen a lot of wonderful work done in Nashville’s startup scene and are finding that Girls to the Moon not only complements what others are doing, but in a way is bringing awareness to it and connecting it to our girls and their caregivers in a way that inspires everyone and hopefully lifts all boats.”

Last year, the program relied mostly on sponsors, but this year Girls to the Moon will be looking for funding, as well. “We’re not sure what that looks like yet, but we know we want Girls to the Moon to reach every girl and caregiver that craves our message and content,” Rogers says.

The post Girls to the Moon: What’s in Store for 2016 appeared first on Startup Southerner.

Emily Howard is a young entrepreneur and the founder of Consider the Wldflwrs, a hand-crafted jewelry line produced in Nashville, Tennessee. Since starting up in 2013, Howard has expanded her services to include floral design, hired new staff and is currently working on opening a storefront to the public. Startup Southerner sat down with Howard to talk about her experience starting a small business, and about how Consider the Wldflwrs continues to grow.

Q: How did Consider the Wldflwrs begin? What inspired you to start creating jewelry?

A: Growing up I was always interested in arts and crafts of all kinds. One of my favorite things to do was to alter jewelry I already owned into something I would actually wear. In 2013, I began making vintage necklaces out of old watch parts, hardware and small pieces I would buy at the Nashville flea market. Some of the pieces in my first line were parts of costume jewelry from my grandma’s closet. When I first began selling jewelry online, I wasn’t expecting for it to turn into a full-time job, but after a couple months I was able to afford nicer tools, nicer metals and time to hone my craft.

Q: Tell us about your team.

A: Today we have a team of four people, including myself. I am the creative director. Jordan is our director of communications. We have a production assistant named Carly, and our newest addition, Shannon, is our graphic designer.

Q: How did the floral design services come about?

A: We started doing floral design workshops in 2013 around the time that I began renting a desk in a co-working space. The marriage of jewelry and florals was natural, thanks to our business name and thanks to the space we had to host our first workshop. Sometimes someone from our team teaches the workshops and sometimes we partner with local floral designers. It’s always a fun time.

Q: Your company partners with a community of craftswomen in Honduras, who are learning crafting skills so they can provide for themselves and their families. How do you support this community, and how did your involvement start?

A: Consider the Wldflwrs’ mission statement is to discover wild beauty and encourage thirsty hearts. My family goes on medical mission trips to Honduras twice a year, and during one of these trips I discovered a group of women who had been meeting to knit on a regular basis. They have passion, talent and the will to learn a trade that was easily recognizable as an opportunity. I presented the idea to teach them jewelry-making, and they were thrilled to learn. The average adult education in Honduras is at a sixth-grade level, and getting a job is nearly impossible in some parts. So, being able to teach them a trade to sell handmade goods is priceless. We support them by purchasing supplies for them and guiding them as they start their own micro-business. Our first lessons began in May 2014, and the women and their business has already grown since then. They have named their business Unison Made.

Q: What would you consider to be the most important lesson (or lessons) you’ve learned as an entrepreneur?

A: One of the strongest lessons I keep close is to always know your “why.” I have been taught this lesson in so many different forms, but it is something I always fall back on when I am faced with an obstacle. “When you know your ‘why,’ you can endure any ‘how.’” In branding, they teach you to shorten your “why” to one sentence, but it’s extremely hard to do that when you are passionate about something. Our “why” is to spread hope, shine light and love people. Wild beauty isn’t tamable. We like to say that we design with simplicity in mind because our customers are unique. And they truly are. We don’t want to change them, just encourage them for who they are.

Q: Any new or exciting information you’d like our readers to know about Consider the Wldflwrs?

A: Yes! We are opening up our storefront to the public this month. Our storefront carries the Consider the Wldflwrs line, home accessories, Unison Made’s jewelry line and jewelry from a few other vendors. We look forward to welcoming our customers into our space.

The post From Craft to Career: A Q&A With Emily Howard appeared first on Startup Southerner.