Memphis native Meg Crosby joined the Start Co. teams for their weekly founder’s dinner on Monday night, August 1st. Meg talked about her career and how her first job out of college was working at the Brooks Museum in midtown Memphis. Longing to be in New York, she moved there to be a party planner, but then her desire to do something more meaningful lead her to running an undergraduate recruiting program called Credit Suisse, which is ultimately how she found her way into the investment banking business. In 2000, around the time when the Silicon Valley culture was booming, Meg became the President of a 40 person startup called Applied Semantics that was founded by 2 guys who went to California Tech in Los Angeles. Their main product was the famous AdSense, which was acquired by Google in 2003 when the technology giant only had roughly 1,000 employees. Meg was then hired as the first HR Generalist at Google and worked for them until she moved back to Memphis in 2006. She says that her passion is the city of Memphis, and making it live up to the greatest potential it has. She has been an amazing supporter of the startup and innovation culture that is constantly reoccuring through the city of Memphis. Meg is now a founding partner of PeopleCap Advisors and a co-owner of The Brass Door with her husband, which is an Irish pub located in downtown Memphis. Coming from someone who has the drive and

On the evening of Monday, July 18th, Jay Myers, the founder and CEO of Interactive Solutions Inc. (ISI), visited the Start Co. Lounge to speak to our Accelerator teams at our weekly Founders Dinner. Interactive Solutions integrates the latest components and software into customized systems that connect organizations to their workers and to the world. They deliver solutions in corporate communications, distance learning, telemedicine, digital signage and more. Inc. has named ISI to its 500|5000 list of America’s fastest growing companies seven times. We were honored to have such an accomplished entrepreneur on site to share his wisdom. Here are some key takeaways from Mr. Myers’ talk: Overcome Adversity Mr. Myers has faced an unbelievable number of challenges on his path to building a successful company. At one point his brother passed away unexpectedly. Less than a year later, he discovered his accountant had embezzled $250,000 from him. Then, within a single month in 2007, he had two friends die, lost employees that accounted for 80% of his sales revenue, and his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. All of these experiences left him emotionally distraught, but he learned that if he didn’t allow that negativity to seep into his business, he could use them as growth points. When he had a negative response to that adversity, his business suffered. But when he had a positive response and chose to overcome that adversity no matter how difficult, it resulted in substantial growth. The year following the fraud incident ISI doubled

On Monday evening, July 11th, Chef Phillip Ashley Rix, founder of Phillip Ashley Chocolates came as our guest speaker for our weekly Founders Dinner accelerator meeting. The now notorious Chef started out working in sales positions for corporations such as FedEx, UPS and Apple. He flourished in sales because he enjoyed working with people, it was where he found a niche. However, he sensed early on that he wanted to be an entrepreneur and had an “itch” throughout his corporate career. He decided to take a three year period to focus on himself; he ended up starting his own company and getting his “PhD” and became a master chocolatier. He “learned the rules so he could break them” and differentiated his chocolate company as much as possible, and ultimately created a luxury brand. We were glad to have Mr. Rix in the office to share some of his experiences in building his company. Being B2B Although he is a small business, Rix built his company on many of the same building blocks that startups do. Many chocolate shops don’t consider themselves B2B, but Rix found a niche in the market after working for corporations. There, he realized that there was dysfunction in the way corporations handled corporate gifting; meanwhile the rest of their company functions were very much structured. His solution was to work closely with his clients through retainer programs for a more efficient and structured schedule for gifting chocolates. This move ultimately shifted his company into a partially

Mike Bruns, the founder and president of Comtrak Logistics, a national transportation and logistics company that’s headquarters are located in Memphis, TN visited the Start Co. lab last night to speak to the founders about his story and the importance of leadership and community. His company, Comtrak Logistics provides trucking services including full truckload, intermodal, depot and logistics services and operates in terminals across the country. His company was named one of the 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies, as well as Business of the Year by the Memphis Business Journal. Mike Bruns has an intriguing quality that was immediately displayed in his presence when he walked into the Start Co. lab. It was his genuine care for community. He believes in worthy causes and people that are passionate about solving a specific problem. Mr. Bruns has worked with multiple non-profit and profit organizations within the Memphis community, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, University of Memphis Board of Visitors, Church Health Center, WKNO, Assisi Foundation of Memphis, Society of Entrepreneurs, and Youth Villages (where he helped them raise $20 million in private contributions that allowed them to triple in size). Not only does Mr. Bruns believe in the true power of community, but he also stresses the importance of the leadership that drives the development of that communal space. “Anything can happen with a good and respected leader,” he says. A good leader never demands respect because they understand they have to earn it from their team. Here are three

Anyone who is familiar with Start Co. understands that it runs accelerator programs for startups with a goal to stimulate the Memphis community with technology and innovation jobs. Then there are the people who simply ask, “So what does Start Co. actually do?” People either know what we do or they have no idea who we are. I was one of those clueless people when I decided to intern for Start Co. this summer of 2016. The only word I could associate with Start Co. was “startups” because as an undergrad student at Rhodes College studying English I was never exposed to the village that it takes to grow startups and grow communities. I thought, why not see how the startup world functions and gain some perspective? This would afford me the opportunity to acquire some knowledge about the business world and make connections with people who have intriguing ideas. While Start Co. has definitely presented me with all of these insights; I have also caught a glimpse of the Start Co. world that many people don’t see. This is what makes us a unique team. My first week working with Start Co. was the week of Memphis in May’s BBQ festival. Start Co. has been participating in the festival for the past 3 years and hosts a tent to bring Investors, Sponsors, Mentors and other entrepreneurs outside of Memphis to enjoy the Memphis culture, or even experience it for the first time. This gives the startups a chance to

On Monday, June 13th, Next Big Sound Cofounder and Head of Product David Hoffman came to talk to our accelerator teams at our weekly Founders Dinner. Next Big Sound is the leading provider of online music analytics and insights, tracking hundreds of thousands of artists around the world. They analyze the popularity of artists, comparing them to a benchmark set by artists of a similar level of recognition. They then use this to predict how they will perform and answer their root question, “How does a band become famous?” Based in New York City, Next Big Sound was launched in 2009 and acquired in the summer of 2015 by Pandora. It was named the most innovative company in the music industry and one of the top 50 most innovative companies overall by Fast Company. Here are some key takeaways from David’s talk with our founders. People make the idea work, not the other way around A common theme among successful startup investors is that they invest in people. Great ideas are a dime a dozen, but people who are capable and driven enough to turn those ideas into a reality are a rarity. When David and his cofounders showed up to the TechStars accelerator in 2009, they had just decided to completely scrap their original idea that got them into the program in the first place. They were afraid the program leaders would boot them out of the program, but instead they said, “We invest in people, not ideas.” A

On Tuesday, May 31st, Revelry Executive Advisor and Business Coach Thomas Knoll Skyped in from Minneapolis to talk to our accelerator teams during our weekly Founder’s Dinner. Knoll has nearly 20 years of experience with building startups and cultivating communities. He is currently working with his third startup, Revelry- a custom software and digital product studio that works closely with startup companies. Knoll took some time to discuss some of the obstacles entrepreneurs face and some of the expertise he often shares with startups. Knoll introduced himself as someone who loves to help his clients at Revelry with their products. How he came to work with Revelry was largely due to his passion for figuring out how to help businesses, and mentoring and advising other founders. These were his favorite parts about going through two rounds at 500 Startups accelerator. He also cares about developing company culture, which he worked toward at Zappos as a community architect. Here are a few key takeaways from Knoll’s experience. Think about growing a great business not necessarily how to sell it Startup founders are faced with managing many aspects of the company. When asked the question of where their company is going to be in 5 to 10 years, many early stage founders stop and are tempted to thoroughly evaluate this question. Knoll addressed this dilemma by advising that founders should focus on making sure that there is a functional company in the first place, and not to worry quite yet about how to sell it. Knoll’s experience with