Fast facts
- More than 900 people from 33 states attended 3686 over 3 days.
- Attendees had more than 1,100 one-on-one networking meetings.
- Startup Onrise won $10,000 in the InvestTN Pitch Competition.
Mayors from the state’s biggest cities drew standing room only Tuesday morning at Launch Tennessee’s entrepreneurial conference, 3686.
“One thing that’s great about having all our big city mayors here — I love seeing when any of my peers get these incredible successes,” Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said during the mayor’s panel, which opened the day Tuesday.
The mayors shared insights into how they work with their communities, what makes their cities unique in terms of innovation, and what roadblocks they are working to overcome.
Another highlight came when keynote speaker Stuart Weitzman got the crowd involved, letting a few lucky attendees wear his famous shoe designs during his presentation, which covered his entrepreneurial journey to becoming an iconic founder who has designed shoes for everyone from Taylor Swift to Beyonce.
Other programming Tuesday included panels on opportunities around AI for legacy industries, the funding landscape for consumer packaged goods startups, the evolving role of tech in professional sports, a masterclass on B2B and B2C marketing, and more.
“The enthusiastic energy at this year’s conference is palpable,” Launch Tennessee CEO Lindsey Cox said. “Our programming is engaging, energetic and educational. And the networking that takes place here is invaluable.”
Pitch competition
Athlete-specific tele-mental health solution Onrise won the InvestTN Pitch Competition Tuesday afternoon.
Kim Quigley, MD, co-founded the Knoxville-based company, which is the first-to-market athlete-specific telehealth solution with full mental health care offering peer support, therapy and psychiatric care.
The business-to-business model has served 17,000 athletes, and the company expects to have revenues of at least $5.25 million by 2026.
Bi-lingual tax refund company MasRefund was the audience choice pick. Founder Dr. Simon Karmarkar created the app to help users overcome barriers they face when filing taxes.
Five companies took the stage for the fan-favorite competition presented by Amazon, pitching a panel of esteemed judges from across the investor and entrepreneurial landscape, for a chance to win $10,000 and the opportunity to get additional investment from LaunchTN’s investment arm, InvestTN.
The other companies that participated in the competition were:
— Fathom PBC, founded by JoAdel Adeola, makes it easy to find, employ, and track talent in the world of work.
— Perseus Materials, co-founded by Dan Lee, invents new ways to build our largest load-bearing structures reliably, quickly, and at low-cost.
— TuneHatch, founded by Christal Hector, Nathan Youssef, and Reece Franklin, is an end-to-end show management platform for live music and entertainment. They make show management easy — empowering venues, promoters, and artists to do more shows in less time and sell more tickets.
Monday and Wednesday
Launch Tennessee kicked off 3686 on Monday, which included an open house and happy hour evening event.
On Wednesday, expanded investor-exclusive programming took over the Frist Art Museum, alongside community-sourced Partner Popup programming scattered across Nashville.
Wednesday’s Investor Day included a panel with Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter, who joined others in a discussion on how Tennessee is positioned to capture and incentivize a growing family office and early-stage venture ecosystem.
Other Investor Day events included a discussion about why founders decided to do business in Tennessee and a startup showcase hosted by Vanderbilt University’s Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization. Vanderbilt University-affiliated startups pitched groundbreaking innovations in areas of healthcare, engineering, AI, and wellness.
Partner Popups across the city included everything from an early-morning community run to a Black founder meetup to marketing sessions supporting in-house teams to a first look at Project Fintech, the Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s accelerator program.
Headshot station
If you used the headshot station, use this link to retrieve your photo. Use the pin “2336” to download your picture.
Sponsors
LaunchTN would like to thank our supporting partners: Pinnacle Financial Partners, Calvetti Ferguson, Nelson Mullins, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Interlaced, The University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University.
Also, a special thanks to our 3686 sponsors: Amazon, J.P. Morgan, Edison Partners, Harbor, EcoMap, Daily Crunch, EPB, Oracle Netsuite, Gray Line of Tennessee, EO Nashville, GNVCA, Hypepotamus, the Nashville Post, the Nashville Scene.
Recap video