Heath Guinn, President and Executive Director of Sync Space, describes the mutually beneficial relationship that he sees between rural communities and entrepreneurs. Heath Guinn believes his community in the Tri-Cities has something special to offer, an ideal environment for entrepreneurship. “We have our flag in the ground around how rural companies can succeed in a…

Leslie Smith, Founding CEO of Epicenter Memphis and current national director for Gender Equality in Tech Cities, explains why entrepreneurial communities are uniquely suited to rise to the occasion in the midst of setbacks. Even as COVID-19 has had devastating economic impact, Leslie Smith recognizes that sometimes a crisis is exactly what entrepreneurs need to…

Cortney Piper, Executive Director of Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council, shares her vision for making Tennessee a global leader in advanced energy innovation and job creation. When Cortney Piper first recognized the enormous potential of Tennessee’s advanced energy sector, she decided to create an organization that could help make her state an industry leader. The…

Marcus Shaw, CEO of CO.LAB, explains why Chattanooga is known as a great place to grow a business. Even as COVID-19 creates new challenges for entrepreneurs, Shaw remains confident that innovation will grow out of the struggle. “When the buildings fall, the artists arise,” he said, sharing a saying he learned while traveling in Nepal….

Jeff Brown and Tiffany Anton of The Biz Foundry unpack the unique opportunities and challenges faced by the entrepreneurs they work within the mostly rural Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee. When Jeff Brown set out to create The Biz Foundry — an entrepreneur center in Cookeville, Tennessee — he discovered that most people in the area didn’t…

Jane Allen and Brynn Plummer of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center share how they’re helping entrepreneurs find the resources they need. Brynn Plummer and Jane Allen believe the city of Nashville was built on a foundation of entrepreneurship, and through their work at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, they hope to make it even easier for people…

This season, we’re taking a deep dive into Tennessee’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. With Disrupt the Continuum, we bring you conversations about how, as a statewide community, we collaborate and provide the resources founders need to build, scale, and execute their businesses. This season, you’ll hear from leaders at each of the entrepreneur centers across the state,…

Sharing the Tennessee entrepreneurial story with policymakers statewide LaunchTN’s annual Week on the Hill, co-hosted by our network partners from across Tennessee, provided entrepreneurs and innovators face-to-face time with legislators. The 2020 Legislative Reception took place during the last week of February, at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in downtown Nashville. It marked the beginning…

The ‘magic and energy’ of inclusive workplaces On the latest episode of Disrupt the Continuum, The Coven cofounder and CEO Alex West Steinman explores why inclusive workplaces are essential — and urges her fellow entrepreneurs to build them. When Alex West Steinman, Bethany Iverson, Liz Giel, and Erinn Farrell founded The Coven, they shared a vision…