Featured partner: The Company Lab
What: The Company Lab (CO.LAB) is a 501c3 nonprofit that helps businesses of all kinds scale their concept.
Established: 2010
Location: Chattanooga
Latest from the team:
Recently, the organization launched a focus, based on Chattanooga’s rich assets, to help startups accelerate in the sustainable mobility space.
Leaders believe that many ventures can make the world a cleaner, smarter, and more sustainable space if provided with the right resources.
CO.LAB helps startups through five types of resources: capital, programming, connections, talent, and voice.
Recently CO.LAB celebrated:
- 5 new hires
- inaugural CO.MOBILITY Summit, which drew hundreds of people come to learn about the different factors of sustainable mobility and entrepreneurship in Chattanooga with Steve Case, President and Co-founder of Revolution LLC, as our keynote speaker.
- Announcement of new CO.LAB Sustainable Mobility Accelerator, in partnership with gener8tor, that will support up to two cohorts of six high-growth startups
Now, CO.LAB’s team is working on another event, an experiential EV Ride & Drive, which will be in June 2023.
Failing Forward
Failing Forward with CO.LAB, as told by Communications Specialist Angela Poffenbaugh:
When the team at CO.LAB decided to take on the challenge of hosting an inaugural CO.MOBILITY Summit, one big revelation was the magnitude of how much detail is needed to plan an event.
We were trying to simultaneously plan a Summit while onboard five new people at CO.LAB, doubling the company’s size. We reached a point where we were told to either delay the Summit or accept that only about 70 people would attend.
Our CEO, Tasia Malakasis, decided she didn’t want to settle for either and helped motivate the entire team to push outreach, planning, and late hours to make our great event possible. And we surpassed those 70 people — we sold about 400 tickets!
Our biggest takeaway: Never doubt your abilities and don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. As long as you have a great team to support you, you can accomplish more than you may realize.
