You could say that being involved with supporting the Nashville Entrepreneur Center runs in the family for Stuart McWhorter: His father, Clayton McWhorter, was the founding Board Chair for the NEC and the namesake of The McWhorter Circle annual giving society. Stuart himself previously served as the NEC’s CEO, too.
On November 17, we hosted Jim McKelvey, a serial entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist, artist, and author of The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time. He is the cofounder of Square and served as the chairman of its board until 2010, and still serves on the Board of Directors. In 2011, his iconic card reader design was inducted into the Museum of Modern Art.
Linda Rebrovick never envisioned she would start her own company, let alone spend time serving as a director on multiple boards. Looking back, however, it’s clear that the seeds were sown early, as she began taking on intrapreneurship roles earlier in her career, such as leading business units within companies like IBM and Dell. Linda would go on to be the CEO of start-up, Consensus Point, a Nashville-based prediction market and market intelligence technology firm. After that, she was presented with numerous opportunities to serve on boards and recognized that many lacked diversity.
John Ingram knows a lot about business. Having worked for decades in different roles in his family’s company, Ingram Industries, he’s seen what it takes to successfully run a large, profitable organization. But his perspective isn’t only that of someone who leads an established, mature company—he also identifies with the entrepreneurial spirit, whether that’s through disruption and reinvention in the publishing industry or through his efforts to bring a Major League Soccer team to Nashville.
“I always say I was New Orleans raised but Nashville made,” said Mignon Francois, Founder and CEO of The Cupcake Collection and one of our EC board members.“This business couldn’t have been done anywhere else. Nashville is where businesses are born. I went to New Orleans to see if my business had legs and I’ve learned that it has legs to walk around the entire country.”
When Dr. Michael Burcham first became involved with the Nashville Chamber of Commerce initiative that would ultimately lead to the formation of the Entrepreneur Center, he didn’t intend to become the fledgling non-profit’s founding CEO. He started by supporting the cause financially and as a board member, motivated by the fact that he had started three companies but never been able to raise capital in Nashville because the ecosystem wasn’t sufficiently mature. But when asked to lead the EC as its CEO because of his own entrepreneurial experience, he agreed—even though he knew what hard work it would be—because of his passion for the mission.
These teams are what’s next in healthcare.
This week, we are honored to introduce you to the 31 teams joining Project Healthcare 2020, Nashville’s top healthcare accelerator program. These amazing teams from around the country were chosen from a highly competitive applicant pool to receive resources and support from the best-of-the-best in Nashville's healthcare ecosystem, including The Nashville Health Care Council, Amsurg, Carefluence, LaunchTN, and Burr & Foreman LLP.
The Nashville Entrepreneur Center (EC) is excited to officially announce the 2020-2021 Cohort of Project Music! Eleven entrepreneurs have been accepted, representing a diverse group of startups that touch not only music, but live events, sports, gaming, and more.