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.
Unlike many Nashville natives, the increasing traffic and constant construction in the city doesn’t bother Bill McCleskey much. For one, he says, the traffic isn’t even all that bad. Perhaps more importantly, though, the growth is a sign of opportunity, both for his entrepreneurial pursuits and for his love of meeting and engaging with new people.
The Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s Project Healthcare teams traveled back to Nashville last Thursday for their second immersive experience as part of the year-long program. While in town, these founders connected directly to healthcare experts from industry partners, including Healthstream, HCA, Brookdale, Aspire, Amerigroup, Amsurg, LifePoint, Tenncare and Carefluence.
Edtech startup Possip took home $60,000 at the LaunchTN 3686 Entrepreneur Festival pitch competition last week, beating out eight startups for both the $10,000 crowd favorite award and the $50,000 main competition prize.