Brian Monaghan never thought he would end up in Memphis, but he couldn’t be happier with his decision to come here. When it comes to being accepted into the Summer of Acceleration, it doesn’t matter where you come from. If you have a killer business idea that solves pressing problems in the home services industry, we will welcome you to Memphis with open arms. In this case, Brian, who is co-founder and CEO of Pest Pulse has come all the way from Dublin, Ireland to grow his business. Pest Pulse is aiming to disrupt the pest control industry with advanced technology. They use smart devices and an advanced reporting and management platform to dramatically improve the service offering for pest control customers. They are a part of the Launch Delta Home Services Accelerator, powered by ServiceMaster and Start Co., whose goal is to disrupt the home services industry through technological innovation. I had the chance to sit down with Brian and have an interesting conversation about his business, background, and his time here in Memphis. Q: Coming all the way from Ireland, what drew you to want to come to Memphis for the Summer of Acceleration? A: The reason why this accelerator is more attractive to us than Y Combinator or TechStars is the partnership with ServiceMaster, who owns world’s largest pest control company: Terminix. We had interviews with Y Combinator but decided, ultimately, that Memphis is the best place for our company right now. Start Co. has a reputation

What are the most important aspects for a company to be successful in a startup accelerator? Eric Mathews, the CEO and co-founder of Start Co., a venture development organization in Memphis, TN, believes that at the heart of every community are entrepreneurs driving economic development. With the beginning of the 2018 Summer of Acceleration, 12 teams from as close as Oxford, MS and as far away as Bangalore, India have descended upon Memphis to fast track their companies over 100 days. Eric is a champion of entrepreneurial growth and listed these 5 tips that he thinks founders need to know if they want to be successful in a startup accelerator program: 1. Typical Day for a Successful Founder: Talking to Customers, Talking to Customers, Talking to Customers The number one cause of startup failure is building something people don’t want. A lot of people come into an accelerator program and tend to gravitate toward the skill sets that they are really good at. Many default to becoming an inventor instead of an entrepreneur. That’s not what this is about. This is about building a business, and they can’t shy away from that. How does that manifest itself in the first place? You need to talk to as many customers as possible. Shying away from your customers is a recipe for failure. A majority of your time should be given to your customers. We can generally tell which companies will be successful based on their willingness to talk to customers. If

For this week of our Founder Spotlight, I met with CEO Aayush Thakur and Business Development Manager Deme Yuan to talk about their company Truckish. Aayush and Deme are trying to level the playing field for small to mid-sized carrier fleets by creating a blockchain and AI based SaaS platform for the trucking logistics industry. Truckish is divided into two components, an Online Freight Brokerage for matching shippers with carriers and a Fleet Management Solution for small to medium size trucking companies. Aayush’s background features previous work doing data analytics on carrier trucks as well as having worked for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Q: What inspired you to become entrepreneurs and start your company? Aayush: I’ve been trying to sell stuff to people since I was little. I would make these simple handheld flashlights consisting of a battery, wire, and bulb that I would sell for around 5 rupees (less than 10 cents). Then in school I would make various games like spin the wheel for the events they would have. In college I took the initiative to make and sell school apparel like t-shirts because the school didn’t offer those types of things. So I would handle all of the funding, resource gathering, design, and selling of these clothes and would make a profit on it. When I came to the U.S., I was doing some consulting work and analytics on trucks and truck data and saw there was a problem with the idle time trucks were experiencing.

For this edition of Founder Spotlight, I had the chance to sit down with Kristian Kimbro Rickard, founder and CEO of doyenne360. Kristian is a social entrepreneur who is looking to solve the lack of STEM education with her creative market solution. Kristian’s company doyenne360 is a social impact, technology startup. They are solving problems in education with a solution called STEMLEX. STEMLEX is modular curriculum plus STEM hands-on activity kits plus AI-powered social learning platform. Doyenne360’s technology platform is built with innovative advanced analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) cloud technology by Microsoft. They are also a financially-supported member of the Microsoft for Startups program. Q: How did you start your company, doyenne360? A: It started as an advanced analytics platform. We build end-to-end advanced analytics platforms from input of data from various sources like mobile apps, business systems, and Internet of Things (IoT). It wasn’t until a retail customer referred us to a nonprofit for underprivileged youth that we realized our passion for using our technical expertise and talents for social good. We realized that we could not only provide technical solutions to clients, but also teach what we know to other underprivileged youth so they can map out a lucrative career for themselves. Q: What is your vision for your company? A: Coming from the private sector and moving into this public sector with schools, I see that there shouldn’t be this separation between the sectors. There are 3 sectors – the public sector,

At Start Co., our most important asset is our people, especially the teams embarking on the Summer Accelerator. This week will be our first edition of Founder Spotlight, a weekly blog post highlighting the 2018 teams, their businesses and their dynamic lives outside of the Start Co. Lab. For our first Founder Spotlight, we will take a deep dive into the life of Marterrious McClain. Marterrious is the co-founder of SecondKeys, which is looking to streamline the process of filing maintenance requests for rental properties by designing a web and mobile maintenance management system that allows for efficiency and transparency. I sat down with Marterrious to learn more about Second Keys and his time in Memphis. Jonah Baer: What led you to creating your company Second Keys? Marterrious McClain: If you’ve ever been a renter, you know how difficult it is to contact your landlord or maintenance personnel about getting something fixed in your apartment. If you’ve ever been a property manager, then I’m sure you understand how difficult it is to keep up or manage everything that comes in. Between me and my partner, Amber, we were trying to fix our own problem. We always had an issue with the places we were renting where we tried to contact them and they wouldn’t answer their own phone or they would contact us 3 days later and not send someone out until 2 weeks later. We were really trying to scratch our own itch. Even now, we’ve been staying here

Beale Street and Bar-B-Que – that’s what people think Memphis BBQ Festival is all about. Throw in 12 early-stage startup companies, investors from across the country, a pitch competition (and a little bit of rain) and you’ve got something vastly different: Start Q. Growing up here in Memphis, I always saw BBQ Fest as a huge party. Now as a summer intern for Start Co., I got to see that it’s so much more than this. It’s a time where startup founders can work to create valuable business connections while also kicking back and enjoying all that BBQ Fest has to offer. But even Start Q had its own humble beginnings. In 2011 Seed Hatchery, the first accelerator, sponsored a BBQ team called Born in the QSA. “We’ve been using the World Championship of BBQ since the first accelerator to gather smart leaders, entrepreneurs and supporters.” CEO Eric Mathews said about the event. “Over time our investment grew to the point where we built our own booth and that continues to grow to this day.” Start Q has evolved over time to where it’s at today as one of Start Co.’s most important and lively weekends of the year. On the Thursday morning of BBQ Fest, the startups were able to sit down with venture capitalist investors and other partners such as IBM, FedEx, and ServiceMaster during National Office Hours. There’s nothing better for an entrepreneur than the chance to sit down with potential investors and other partners, pitch their

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston Churchill With the beginning of the Summer of Acceleration, startup founders from all over the world were introduced to one of the favorite Start Co. traditions, Founder’s Dinner. What could be better as a new startup founder than great advice from someone who was in your shoes? The first founder’s dinner did not disappoint as Wayne Culbreth, Co-Founder and CEO of OPS-FUEL shared his 3 keys to success for entrepreneurs: 1. Don’t stop 2. Lose your shame 3. The “in extremis” leader Don’t Stop- Seems simple, but it’s quite possibly the most important advice of this summer. There is a reason at Start Co. we say “Never Stop” and this could not be more true for an entrepreneur. Similar to the quote above from Churchill, founders have to keep going regardless of how many times they get knocked down. Starting is arguably the hardest part but once you have made it this far, you can never stop. Lose your shame- You can’t be afraid to be vulnerable about your business. You don’t know everything. Your company is not perfect (nor will it ever be). Wayne argued “it’s better in an investor’s eyes to be truthful about what is going on with your company than to lie and risk losing the trust of the investor”. The ‘in-extremis’ leader- An “in extremis” leader is someone who leads while under extreme stress such as military personnel,