Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Spotlight: Chattanooga, TN

Chattanooga,TN, known as the “Gig City” ranks number 4 in the country as a top city and entrepreneurial ecosystem for startups. (source – wallethub, April 2015)

Chattanooga, once known as one of America’s dirtiest cities, has built a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is the first city in the western hemisphere to have gigabit-speed internet service and has re-branded itself as the “Gig City”. Based on an April, 2015 ranking by WalletHub, a personal-finance social network, the “Gig City” ranks number 4 in the country as a top city for startups, and was rated number 2 for access to resources.
For further information see “The Best and Worst Cities to Launch a Business” in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Based on this ranking, FundingSage has reviewed the resources that make up the “Gig City” entrepreneurial ecosystem:

Entrepreneurial Meetups:

1st Tuesday Lunch, Learn and Lead
A once a month meetup for CEOs, business owners, and Presidents enabling the networking and building of relationships with other top business leaders in the Chattanooga community.
1 Million Cups Chattanooga: Entrepreneurs Mornings
A weekly meetup of entrepreneurs with businesses in the Chattanooga area. Startup entrepreneurs are provided an opportunity to present their businesses and participate in follow up Q & A.
Chattanooga Female Founders
A meetup of female founders seeking to network and grow their businesses and those of other women entrepreneurs.
Chattanooga Home-based Business Women
A meetup group of female business owners and consultants which meets periodically to promote networking, idea swapping and inspiration to women who work businesses from out of their homes.
Chattanooga SEO & Internet
A meetup of Chattanooga based SEO professionals who are interested in SEM techniques and other general issues related to internet marketing, web design and social media.
Nooga Networking
A meetup group for anyone interested in growing their sales and gaining sales tools and tips.
Noisemakers
A meetup group with a focus on bringing people invested in music, film, and tech in the Chattanooga area together.
WOWW! Womem of Wealth & Worth
A Chattanooga meetup group for women who have their own business and desire support and networking with other women who share their dreams.

Regular Entrepreneurial Events:

24 Hour Generator
A CO.LAB event designed to inspire high school girls to develop the vision, enthusiasm and tenacity to become an entrepreneur.
Business Entrepreneur Academy
A 10 week course for adults who have recently started a business or are interested in doing so.
Chamblis Startup Social
A periodic startup seminar series sponsored by the Chamblis Startup Group.
Launch Kinect
An annual entrepreneurial program focused on providing fun, entrepreneurship and networking for urban teens.
Start It Up
A weekly radio show dedicated to Chattanooga’s startup community.

Startup Competitions:

48 Hour Launch Chattanooga
A CO.LAB sponsored weekend long business startup experience designed to inspire entrepreneurialism in the local community.
Startup Week Chattanooga
Chattanooga’s Startup Week event which takes place in the fall in concert with other Startup Weekends around the country and globe.
Will This Float?
An annual business pitch competition sponsored by CO.LAB, which showcases up and coming area startup ideas.

Co-working Space:

Chattanooga WorkSpace
A Chattanooga co-working facility focused on area artists and creative community.
Concierge Office Suites
A co-working facility which provides fully furnished office space and a virtual staff.
Society of Work
Chattanooga’s membership based shared office facility.

MakerSpace:

Chatt*lab
Describes themselves as “a maker/hacker/whatever space and community workshop.”

Incubators:

INCubator Business Development Center
The largest business incubator in the state of Tennessee and third largest in the United States.
Lamp Post Group
A venture incubator that provides startup capital and mentoring support to growth oriented startups. Their support services include legal, accounting, HR, recruiting and office space.

Incubators vs Accelerators: Which will best fit your needs?

Accelerators:

CO.LAB Accelerator
A startup accelerator with a focus on supporting entrepreneurial growth in southeast Tennessee.
GIGTank
“boutique” accelerator for seed stage startups developing ultra high-bandwidth business applications.

Angel Groups / VCs:

Blank Slate Ventures
A seed stage investment fund established specifically to fund pre-revenue startups in and around Chattanooga, TN. They seek to invest in teams of entrepreneurs who are building companies with the potential to disrupt their respective industries.
Chattanooga Renaissance Fund
A fund which invests in seed and early stage companies with strong growth potential. They seek companies with strong entrepreneurial teams with a continuing desire to engage, post investment.
The Jump Fund
An angel investment fund which invests in female led companies with strong growth potential. They desire to generate strong financial returns and to elevate the role of women in business.
The Lamp Post Group
A venture incubator that provides startup capital and mentoring support to growth oriented startups. Their support services include legal, accounting, HR, recruiting and office space.
River Associates Investments
Chattanooga based private equity firm which is focused on the lower middle market.

Angel Investor Startup Search Tool.

Entrepreneurial Newsletter Coverage:

TEKNOVATION.BIZ
A web based new service with a focus on spotlighting and celebrating all things related to technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship in East Tennessee.
Venture Tennessee Connections
An online entrepreneurial and business news service with a focus on related activities in the state of Tennessee and surrounding areas.

Are you familiar with entrepreneurial ecosystem infrastructure in Chattanooga not included in the article above? If so, let us know via a comment below and we will add it to the article.

Interested in other Southeastern US Cities in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Spotlight?

Augusta, Georgia, Greensboro, North Carolina,Memphis, Tennessee

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Alexa Cleek

Definitioner

SEM

Search Engine Marketing

SEO

Search Engine Optimization

Human Relations

Bounce Rate

Internet (Website)

An organized property made up of a group of connected pages on the World Wide Web, (Internet) that are considered a single entity.⁶

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

An online type of marketing designed to drive traffic to a company or an organizations’ website to optimize its ranking, including but not limited to paying for the site to appear in search engine results.⁶

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Processes and methods used to increase or boost site rankings or the frequency in which a websites search results are returned by an internet search engine as part of a process to maximize user traffic to the site.⁶

Social Media

The use of electronic online communities to share information, communicate ideas and personal messages and engage with others through comments, discussion and various media such as blog articles and video. Examples of platforms on which social media communities exist include FaceBook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Quora and Twitter.⁶

Meetup

A website which enables the facilitation of online in-person meetings of groups with similar interests. Local Meet-ups groups focus on a wide variety of interests, including technology, entrepreneurship, investments and startups from the entrepreneurial world.⁶

Entrepreneur

A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks to do so. Entrepreneurs are the founders of startups and are the people angel investors support.⁷

Venture

Venture is often used for referring to a risky start-up or enterprise company.⁵

Startup

A startup is a new business venture / enterprise in its initial or early stages of development. These stages include the concept, seed, early, growth and mezzanine stages.⁶

Equity

Ownership in the capital of a Company. In corporations, it is called “stock”; in limited partnerships or LLCs, it is called “interests” or “units.”³
This designation is given to a stockholder’s ownership in a company. The amount of ownership is obtained when an individual or corporation purchases one or more shares of stock (equity shares). The more equity purchased, the greater the ownership.⁴

Private Equity

A company ownership position that is not listed and cannot be traded on a public securities exchange. Issuance, ownership and exchange of private securities are regulated differently from those of public securities under federal and state law.¹
Equity securities of companies that have not “gone public” (are not listed on a public exchange). Private equities are generally illiquid and thought of as a long-term investment. As they are not listed on an exchange, any investor wishing to sell securities in private companies must find a buyer in the absence of a marketplace. In addition, there are many transfer restrictions on private securities. Investors in private securities generally receive their return through one of three ways: an initial public offering, a sale or merger, or a recapitalization.³
Private equities are equity securities of unlisted companies. Private equities are generally illiquid and thought of as a long-term investment. Private equity investments are not subject to the same high level of government regulation as stock offerings to the general public. Private equity is also far less liquid than publicly traded stock.⁵

Pitch

A presentation in which a startup founder attempts to persuade an investor of the viability of their company. The presentation spectrum varies based on the specific purpose of the pitch. Brief presentations in which an entrepreneur provides a 30 - 60 second overview of their idea, business model and marketing strategy, with the purpose of attaining a followup audience with an investor are described as elevator pitches. Formal, detailed presentations utilizing power point type slide decks, with the specific objective of seeking investment from angel groups or VCs, are known as investment presentation pitches.⁶

Market

Based on supply and demand, this term refers to the societal arrangement whereby consumers purchase goods and services from businesses and individual sellers in exchange for currency. In economic relevance, the “market” can be divided into different industries, such as biotechnology, food, etc. The exchange between the consumer and seller contribute to a society’s market economy which greatly depends on these transactions for economic viability.⁴

Incubator

An organization established to support the development of startup companies with intermediate term access, (1 - 3 years) to facilities, (office and lab space), resources and development programs, potentially including mentoring. Incubators differ from accelerators in that the latter typically focus on acceleration of growth in a shorter defined period whereas the former is focused on the development of the company and its product over a longer time period.⁶

Capital

Financial capital is a term that can refer to the money exchanged between entrepreneurs and investors during a business deal. Entrepreneurs need to raise capital for their startups while investors can provide them with the needed capital (or funding). Financial capital usually comes with interest, and new business owners can use their financial capital in purchasing real capital (or machinery or equipment) for their new business.⁴

Accelerator

In an Accelerator, a Seed investment is made in return for equity and usually between $15K - $50K. Startups are admitted in classes and work in groups. They are generally given a deadline to complete intensive training and iteration (typically 1 week to 6 months). Startups end an accelerator program with a Demo Day in which they pitch to investors.²

INFOGRAPHICS