Launch Tennessee Empowering Tennessee’s
entrepreneurial ecosystem
Tennessee is home to a deeply connected network of resources. Find out what our statewide entrepreneurial ecosystem has to offer.
Entrepreneurs
If you are building a startup in Tennessee, our capital programs and statewide network is here to help.
A Statewide Collaborative Network
LaunchTN empowers Tennessee’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at all stages of company building, from ideation and launch through commercialization and growth. From our capital programs to our unique statewide relationships with our Network Partners, mentor networks, and universities, we are taking a collaborative approach to serve Tennessee’s entrepreneurs.
Our Network Partners
Our Network Partners
Through collaboration with our Network Partners, entrepreneur organizations across the state, we’re able to make resources easily accessible to investors and entrepreneurs. Together, we aim to strengthen Tennessee’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and activate sustainable economic growth throughout the state. Click on the name of each Network Partner on the map below to learn more.
We are the front door for entrepreneurs in West Tennessee. A resource, collaborative community and support system for everyone from the serial entrepreneurs to those taking their first plunge into business ownership, problem solving and innovating.
Sync Space is the regional entrepreneurial hub in Northeast Tennessee with locations and partnerships throughout the Tri-Cities and Appalachian Highlands. Our programs provide early stage startups and growing businesses connectivity to regional partners for mentorship and pilot program opportunities, all designed to help entrepreneurs be successful in Northeast Tennessee and beyond. For more information, visit us at syncspace.org.
The Biz Foundry helps businesses start and thrive in the Upper Cumberland. We know that entrepreneurship, innovation, and collaboration are intrinsic to economic and social vitality, so we foster these values through business resources, community programs, and one-on-one work with local businesses. If you have an innovative idea and a desire to strike out on your own, we’re here to help.
The Company Lab (CO.LAB) is a nonprofit startup accelerator that supports entrepreneurial growth in southeast Tennessee. We work with companies ranging from Main Street businesses to tech startups scaling into major markets.
The EC became the front door for entrepreneurs aspiring to create companies in Nashville with the opening of its flagship facility at 105 Broadway in August of 2010. In June of 2013, the EC moved to its current location in one of the many Trolley Barns on Rolling Mill Hill.
Originally a vision of the Partnership 2010 initiatives of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, the EC began in 2007 with the mission of raising the quality of resources available to Nashville’s entrepreneurial and small business communities. The EC represents a partnership of local and state government support, private interests and the Nashville business community at-large.
Knoxville Entrepreneur Center is a nonprofit business accelerator located on Market Square in downtown Knoxville. The mission of KEC is to serve as the front door for entrepreneurship in East Tennessee, and a resource for anyone looking to start or grow a business here. Knoxville Entrepreneur Center exists to help entrepreneurs and startups at every stage of the process. If you’re a mover, shaker, or risk taker, you’ve come to the right place.
As a nonprofit hub organization, Epicenter leads the Memphis region’s connected and collaborative entrepreneurship movement. Using a systems approach, Epicenter drives strategy and measures impact among a network of economic development, academic, corporate, and government partners to increase support to new and existing tech startups, creative and community-based businesses, student entrepreneurs, and others across multiple industries and stages of growth. Epicenter and its partners connect these entrepreneurs and their innovative ideas to programming, capital, customers, and talent in order to create a just, inclusive, and growing economy that accrues to all Memphians. More information is at epicentermemphis.org.
Our Statewide Network Partners
Built by veteran entrepreneurs for veteran entrepreneurs. We believe veterans are America’s greatest human asset. We aim to inspire, educate, and connect them to fulfill their potential. Our mission is to catalyze the entrepreneurial potential of the military experience to lead innovation in the American economy. Our vision is that every person who served in the military will have the community, the requisite network, and the resources to realize their full entrepreneurial potential.
Since 2007 BioTN, a 501c(3) organization, has been a leader in life science and STEM-related economic and workforce development programs, partnerships and advocacy efforts. BioTN’s mission is to promote, within the state of Tennessee, the Southeastern US and beyond: 1) Knowledge of, and education in, STEM and the biosciences, 2) Innovation and entrepreneurship in STEM and the biosciences, and 3) The positive impact of STEM and the biosciences on human health. We believe that through investment in those three critical areas — education, workforce development, and entrepreneurship, our state will continue to grow into a major hub of research and development that will change lives.
The Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council champions advanced energy as an economic development and job creation strategy. No other entity in the state concentrates specifically on this robust sector. We educate public officials and business leaders about Tennessee’s advanced energy economy, establish strategic partnerships to connect assets with opportunities, and inform policy that expands and strengthens the industry. TAEBC partnered with Launch Tennessee to lead the Energy Mentor Network and foster the growth of Tennessee advanced energy technologies and startups by connecting entrepreneurs with mentors and industry specific expertise.
TennSMART is a public-private consortium encompassing Tennessee and regional organizations working together to develop and deploy new intelligent mobility innovations that could change how America transports people and goods. Our members include stakeholders in the automotive and trucking industries, software and hardware suppliers, municipalities and utilities, universities, and research institutions. We serve as a forum for organizations to share knowledge of innovations related to connected and autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, cybersecurity, freight efficiency and multi-modal commuting and work closely with government and industry to ensure we are leveraging scientific resources from our academic and research institutions to solve relevant, complex problems in intelligent mobility.
We connect entrepreneurs with farmers to create innovative agricultural solutions and forge farms of the future capable of meeting the needs of the ever-growing population.
Twitter: @AgLaunch
Facebook: AgLaunch
Instagram: AgLaunch
LinkedIn: AgLaunch
Tennessee AgTech Mentor Network is the latest addition to the thriving ecosystem focused on supporting agtech startups and companies in Tennessee. The goal of the network is to create a meaningful feedback loop for startups engaging industry veterans, startup experts, and farmers that will lead to additional investment and create more viable companies right here in Tennessee. With support from LaunchTN, the network will focus on supporting new entrepreneurs in the agtech space as well as startups led by seasoned entrepreneurs who are new to the agriculture industry. Through its annual bootcamps, KEC and AgLaunch have worked with multiple Tennessee teams focused on building successful companies in agriculture. We are looking to build on that experience by developing a network of mentors and farmers that will work with Tennessee agtech startups to bring their product or service to market.
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Resources
LaunchTN empowers a statewide network of resources supporting Tennessee’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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