WHAT: Start Co. will host its second annual event at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest this year, building on last year’s success to invite sponsors and startup enthusiasts from across North America to attend the Memphis-centric event. In addition to local partners, mentors and accelerator teams, Start Co. is expecting national partners such as Softlayer (an IBM company), LaunchTN, the Global Accelerator Network, PayPal_Braintree and Amazon Web Services to attend the “Start Q” event. The weekend will kick off Thursday, May 14, with office hours at the Start Lab. Startups will have the opportunity to interact with and learn from Start Co. national mentors and partners, and members of AutoZone’s IT team will be training the teams on software, application development and design. Following office hours May 14 – 15, the teams will meet on the river for a barbecue lunch and a pitch competition hosted by Tech Cocktail, where selected startups will have 60 seconds to pitch their businesses to partners and sponsors. More information on the competition, including a link to register, can be found at co/event/memphis-mixer-startup-showcase. Competitors may encourage friends and family to vote for their team for the “Readers’ Choice” award May 4 – 14. The “Memphis’ Hottest Startup” grand prize award will be presented Friday and is determined by the combined scores of a panel of judges and an on-site text audience vote. Winners of both awards will qualify for Tech Cocktail’s National Startup Competition in Las Vegas and the winning

Start Co. CEO/Founder will represent and support the network through feedback, direction and advice  Memphis, Tenn. (April 8, 2015) – The Global Accelerator Network recently announced its 2015 advisory board, of which representatives from across the world will help drive and guide the organization. The network’s mission is to set the standard for entrepreneurial excellence for accelerators with professional development, networking opportunities, training, consulting and ongoing support for members. Seven representatives were chosen to represent different accelerator foci and geographical groups; Eric Mathews, Founder and CEO of Start Co., was nominated by his peers to the advisory board to represent nonprofit accelerators. This year’s board represents representatives from top accelerators across the globe, including:   Eric Mathews, Start Co., Memphis, Tennessee, representing nonprofit accelerators Cody Simms, Disney Powered by Techstars, Los Angeles, representing corporate partnership accelerators Robb Kunz, BoomStartup, Salt Lake City, Utah, representing North American accelerators Gonzalo Costa, NXTP Labs, Buenos Aires, Argentina, representing South American accelerators Timothy O’Connell, H-Farm Ventures, Venice, Italy, representing European accelerators Ramez Mohamed, Flat6Labs, Cairo, Egypt, representing Middle East and North African accelerators Brett Holland, Lightning Labs, Wellington, New Zealand, representing Asia Pacific accelerators   “I am honored that my fellow accelerator peers thought of me to help guide the Global Accelerator Network into 2016,” said Mathews. “I’m looking forward to supporting the mission and programming of the Network as well as gaining valuable insights from other advisory board members on successful acceleration processes and practices.”   The Global Accelerator Network is a network

(Memphis Business Journal) Four graduates of Start Co.’s accelerators have received $997,000 in capital investment: The College Initiative, Core Fire Commandos, Pickle and Well Done. With the latest round of funding, the 2014 cohort companies from Start Co. have raised a little more than $2 million since completing their accelerator programs. The College Initiative, an organization that provides college-ready low-income and underserved high school students with the tools, support and mentoring to apply and succeed in college, received $767,000. Gabriel Fotsing, the organization’s founder, raised funds to ramp up operations in the Mid-South to serve 500 students in direct programming and 5,000 students in outreach programming. Core Fire Commandos uses mock emergency and disaster situations to provide team-building, problem-solving and critical thinking. The company will use the $100,000 in funding it received to build out a cloud-based portal that youth can use to translate their experiences into real life by growing relationships, receiving mentoring and tracking real-life accomplishments. Both organizations were graduates of the Sky High Accelerator. View the full article at Memphis Business Journal

Well Done, Core Fire Commandos and The College Initiative achieve post-accelerator funding; Pickle announces second funding round Memphis, Tenn. (March 31, 2015) – Start Co., a member of the Global Accelerator Network operating industry-specific accelerators each summer, today announced $997,000 in new capital raises for two Seed Hatchery and two Sky High accelerator graduate startups in Memphis. These investments bring the total investment for 2014 cohort teams to just over $2 million since the close of the accelerator and continue the Start Co. tradition of bringing together talent, investors and ecosystem support for startup success. “Each of these companies demonstrated their commitment to growth and further building their business during the post-accelerator program,” said Andre Fowlkes, President of Start Co. “We are proud of their continued success as they validate their businesses for future growth and sustainability.” Four Memphis startups that closed on funding recently are: Core Fire Commandos ($100,000): Core Fire Commandos is an experiential learning program that teaches educational team building, problem solving and critical thinking through mock emergency and disaster situations in their power zone located at the Kroc Center of Memphis. Founder Ty Cobb plans to use the funding to build out a cloud-based portal that youth can use to translate their experiences into real life by growing relationships, receiving mentorship and tracking real life accomplishments. Pickle ($100,000): Pickle is a platform for brand engagement via competitive selfies and photo sharing. Co-founders Evan Katz and Morgan Steffy raised $20,000 in October 2014, and will use the new

Principles in creative problem-solving lead public and private groups to improve efficiencies, outputs and impacts Memphis, Tenn. (March 24, 2015) – Start Co. today announced the formalization of an offering that leverages learnings from the startup accelerator process to help non-startup groups in the public and private sectors, including nonprofits, government entities and civic organizations, utilize entrepreneurial principles and creative problem solving to fine tune their business models, as well as launch new products or efforts and accelerate talent. Over the last four years, Start Co. has run pilot programs that tested out the process with several Memphis organizations, including the Memphis Public Library, the Department of Journalism at the University of Memphis, the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office, Rhodes College, among others. Start Co. has worked with these organizations to improve the efficiency of their processes, specifically by leading projects that explore customer discovery and running “experiments” to confirm success and make adjustments if one approach is not yielding the desired results. Start Co. has helped conduct business modeling efforts with these organizations to ensure proposed efforts align with organizational goals. “Start Co. has inspired us to raise the bar on the kinds of services we can provide,” said Diane Jalfon, executive director of the Memphis Library Foundation. “Their methodology helped us examine our patrons’ needs to develop programming and resources for our Small Business Center and provide technical programming for our newly developed Cloud901 teen learning lab.” Upcoming this year, Start Co. will be working with the Memphis Grizzlies Charitable

(Memphis Daily) The organization helping startup founders launch new ventures in Memphis will soon have more elbow room for the space where it holds events, teaches and provides a co-working environment for startup teams. The Start Co. crew has signed a lease for extra space for its Downtown “Start Lab” at 88 Union Ave., increasing the current footprint to 7,600 square feet – 80 percent more space that includes expanded amenities for entrepreneurs like an outdoor patio for events and networking opportunities. The lease was signed earlier this month, and construction is expected to be finished by April. Once that’s done, the new space will provide a home in which startup teams participating in Start Co.’s summer accelerator programming can co-work as they get busy building their respective ventures. More than that, though, the “Start Lab” will also be transformed into an event space for the varied entrepreneurial and technology communities that exist in the city. Memberships will be offered to the community area of the Start Lab, for example, and will allow members continuous access to the space. Office hours, business development and investment strategy workshops also will be held in the community event and training space, and requests can be made for use of the space for meetings and events by accelerator alumni, technology user groups and other organizations. View the full article at The Daily News

Partnership to provide Seed Hatchery and Upstart accelerator teams with $25,000 of investment capital MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Jan. 14, 2015) – Innova Memphis, an early-stage venture capital firm, and Start Co., a nationally recognized venture development organization based in Memphis, are partnering to invest capital into high-growth-potential B2B startups in the Seed Hatchery and Upstart accelerator programs.  Applications for those accelerator programs are now open. Startup teams selected for Seed Hatchery, the first accelerator in Memphis now focusing on B2B technology businesses, and Upstart, one of the first accelerators to focus on women-led tech startups in the United States, will each receive $25,000 of investment capital from Start Co. Angels and Innova Memphis. “To date, we’ve invested in more than 30 companies, including 16 teams through the ZeroTo510 Medical Device Accelerator, a program of Memphis Bioworks, that alone have gone on to raise $7.5 million,” said Jan Bouten, partner, Innova Memphis. “With this partnership, we’re seeking new startups in the B2B technology space that have the potential to become economic engines and create new jobs.” Start Co. completed four accelerator programs in 2014, including Seed Hatchery and Upstart.  Eighteen accelerator teams came from all over the world in 2014 and benefited from early investment capital, mentorship, and business and technical assistance.  In total, over $3.8 million was raised by Start Co. teams in 2014 adding to a total of over $11.3 million raised in recent years by Start Co. startups. “With accelerator applications now open and Innova engaged, it’s an exciting

Build-out to include dedicated co-working space for accelerator teams and memberships for Memphis-area entrepreneurs. MEMPHIS, Tenn. (February 13, 2015) – Start Co. today announced an expansion to the Start Lab at 88 Union Ave., increasing its current footprint by 80 percent. The new build-out will include enhancements to the existing space, which will be transformed into an event space for the Memphis entrepreneurial and technology communities, but will also provide a designated co-working space for teams in this summer’s accelerator programming. The lease for the additional space was signed in early February and construction is expected to be completed in early April. “This build-out will allow us to continue to refine and build our accelerator programs, while also allowing other groups to use the community center for the advancement of digital technologies and talent in Memphis,” said Eric Mathews, CEO and Founder of Start Co. The new Start Lab has a total of 7,600 square feet and provides expanded space and amenities to Memphis-area entrepreneurs, including an outdoor patio to be utilized for events and networking opportunities. Memberships will be offered to the community area of the Start Lab and will allow members 24/7 access to the space. The community event and training space will continue to be used for office hours, business development and investment strategy workshops. Additionally, accelerator alumni, technology user groups, and innovative organizations may make requests to use the space for meetings and events. The new co-working space, however, will be explicitly dedicated to accelerator participants