Thought Leadership

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How We Failed at a Startup – and what you can learn

Be Our Guest is a feature on the EC blog highlighting thought leadership from our community - advisors, entrepreneurs, members, and more.

Today’s post is by EC advisor Greg Born. Greg began his career as an Air Force Pilot, then held leadership roles in both Operations and Mergers and Acquisitions at businesses such as GE, Oracle, Comcast, as well as a in health and health-tech businesses – including Change Healthcare in Nashville. In all roles, his focus has been improving operational teams, connecting strategy and growth, and leading transformation. Helping it operate better. You can read his other entrepreneurship and leadership articles here.

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Navigate Podcast – Episode 3: Mignon Francois Shares the Secret Ingredients in her Cupcake Collection

It’s the true story of sweet success, and if you were among the hundreds of hopeful entrepreneurs who joined us at the Entrepreneur Center a few weeks ago for the official launch party of our Navigate podcast, you could just about taste it in the air.

As she took to the stage, Mignon Francois, the woman behind the Cupcake Collection, one of Nashville’s most successful startups, we knew we were in for a real treat. “I don’t know, Clark,” she teased as she slipped a pair of headphones over her ears, then released the first of many wide smiles she would share with us that evening. “This is messing with my afro!”

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Navigate Podcast – Episode 2: 5 Tips to Fostering the Right Mentor Relationship

At the height of the economic recession in 2009, Michael Brody-Waite quit his job at a Fortune 50 company to become an aspiring entrepreneur. Looking back now, he humbly admits, he had no idea what he was doing. “I know it says I’m CEO, but I had no idea how to be a CEO, how to [run] the business,” he revealed. “We were creating an industry that had never been done before without any investors or advisors.”

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