First startup in Summer of Acceleration programming closes funding round in only 85 days MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Aug. 4, 2014) – Start Co. today announced a $250,000 angel investment for Sparkgap cohort member Graph Story, a graph database-as-a-service offering for small and medium businesses. The funding, mostly furnished by members of the Start Co. Angels Network, represents the first investment for this year’s Summer of Acceleration programming.   “Moving through Sparkgap’s curriculum has helped me establish a valid business model and strategy,” said Greg Jordan, CEO and Founder of Graph Story. “The team and mentor network at Start Co. has helped coach me every step of the way, from customer discovery to development to receiving the investment dollars that will help propel my business forward to the next stage.”   Graph Story is the latest funding event for Start Co. Angels, the first angel network and fund in the region that was specifically designed to fund high growth technology startups. In January, three prior Seed Hatchery teams received funding from both the fund and network. Since 2011, Start Co. has rapidly increased entrepreneurial talent and access to mentorship, while also developing a larger base of angel investors, all to further the mission to relentlessly build founders in the Mid-South.   “Greg took full advantage of the resources, curriculum and access to our mentors and angel network,” said Eric Mathews, CEO and Founder of Start Co. “This is further validation of our acceleration model, where we cram 12 months of entrepreneurship into

(High Ground News) Engine, the voice of startups in government, recently made the trip from San Francisco to Memphis, where we’ve seen the local entrepreneurial ecosystem flourish over the last few years. Memphis is one of the cities Engine chose for its series of “Startup Cities” videos, where several successful entrepreneurship hubs outside the larger, typical startup markets in the U.S. are featured. Start Co. was highlighted as a part of Memphis’ video, illustrating how its four accelerator programs and vast startup resources are contributing toward the entrepreneurial community. This series of videos came following the release of a recent report by theKauffman Foundation and Engine, where it was realized that high-tech startups are key drivers of job creation throughout the United States. Each video demonstrates an entrepreneurial spirit that’s passionate about economic development and community growth. You can watch Memphis’ video here and read the blog post from Engine regarding their Memphis visit. Memphis carried some surprises for the Engine team: a group of extremely dedicated entrepreneurs, many from other areas, and a community passionate about building a better future for the city. Entrepreneurs who moved here from other areas found an abundance of resources at their disposal: talented mentors, investors and other successful startup founders – all willing to jump in and help. Watch the video at High Ground News

(SouthernAlpha) Start Co. has announced that Edward B. Montgomery, former White House Chief Economist and the current dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, will be the keynote speaker at the Summer of Acceleration Demo Day on August 21st. Demo Day is the pinnacle for Start Co.’s 14-week startup training and mentoring program and will showcase 16 startup teams and their companies. Montgomery’s keynote will focus on the community impact of high-growth entrepreneurship and how it is key for communities such as Memphis. “Economic growth and revitalization in today’s fast moving economy requires the deliberate and systematic development and nurturing of an entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Montgomery. “Public private partnerships can play an important role in fostering and supporting startup companies from their earliest stages through to maturity.” View the full article at SouthernAlpha

(Memphis Daily News) Memphis’ startup community is in the throes of its busiest summer in memory. The Start Co. organization is running four startup accelerator programs at the moment simultaneously, compared to past undertakings that involved one accelerator at a time. The four programs underway now include Seed Hatchery, Upstart, SparkGap and Sky High, and they include the participation of more than two dozen teams, some of which hail from Memphis and others from around the country. And it’s all leading up to a Demo Day Aug. 21, an event where as many as 1,000 people are expected to converge on the city to watch the startup teams present their concepts to investors in the hope of securing funding to take their ideas to the next level. Read the full article at The Daily News

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (July 28, 2014) – Start Co. announced today that The Honorable Edward B. Montgomery, former White House Chief Economist and current dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, will be the keynote speaker at the Summer of Acceleration Demo Day Aug. 21. Demo Day is the culmination of a nationally recognized intensive 14-week startup training and mentoring program created for entrepreneurs with innovative startup ideas in the information technology (Seed Hatchery), logistics innovation (Sparkgap), women-led technology (Upstart) and social enterprise (Sky High) industries. Montgomery’s keynote will focus on the community impact of high-growth entrepreneurship and how this is especially key for communities such as Memphis. “Economic growth and revitalization in today’s fast moving economy requires the deliberate and systematic development and nurturing of an entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Montgomery. “Public private partnerships can play an important role in fostering and supporting startup companies from their earliest stages through to maturity.”   Montgomery is widely recognized as an authority on economic development, labor law and policy. He has had a long career in academia at institutions such as the University of Maryland, Michigan State University, Harvard University and Stanford University. Montgomery was also tasked by President Obama to act as the executive director of the White House council for auto communities and workers. He is also a prior chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor. Montgomery’s public policy expertise is frequently sought after and has also been featured in major media outlets such as C-SPAN,

(Chattanooga Times Free Press) In Tennessee, we currently have six accelerators across the state that are nearing the end of their industry-specific summer cohort programs: GigTank in Chattanooga, Jumpstart Foundry in Nashville, ZeroTo510 and the Start Co. programs in Memphis, autoXLR8R in Spring Hill and MediaWorks in Knoxville. All of these programs began in May and will end with demo days later this month or in August. GigTank wraps up with demo day on Tuesday, July 29 at Girls Preparatory School. GigTank is the world’s only accelerator with access to a gigabit-speed Internet and focuses on companies in areas of 3D printing/additive manufacturing, healthcare technology and smart grid development. View the full article at Chattanooga Times Free Press

(Memphis Daily News) Education reform has been alive and well here in Memphis over the last few years. There have been many great initiatives established to secure dollars and establish programming to move our youth forward. As always, I am thinking of scale, sustainability and innovation to stay relevant. Teach for America is one effort that has been growing strong since it landed in Memphis in 2006, especially given our struggles with only 4 percent of high school students graduating college ready and 26 percent holding a bachelor’s degree in the metro area, according to Teach for America. Its mission is valiant, “growing the movement of leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education.” It has been interesting to see how entrepreneurship is taking root as a means to further Teach for America’s mission. Let’s face it, TFA is a startup. A startup that began in 1989, but nonetheless its model is original, innovative and scalable. It’s no wonder that entrepreneurs are spawning out of its corps, and we are seeing that right here in Memphis in terms of advancing education. View the full article at The Daily News 

(Memphis Daily News) “I Choose Memphis” spotlights Memphians who are passionate about calling this community home. New Memphis Institute provides the profiles. Name: Hillary Quirk Job title and company: Community Manager, Start Co. Length of time living in Memphis: 5 years Life history: I grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and moved to Memphis to attend Rhodes College, where I studied international studies and political science. Memphis was supposed to be a temporary stepping stone, but the more I got to know it, the more I realized I couldn’t bring myself to leave! I was hooked and wanted to invest in the city I had come to love, so I joined the team at Start Co. – a globally recognized organization that builds startup founders for the digital economy in Memphis. I now consider myself a proud Memphian. First memory of Memphis? Other than a brief tour of the Rhodes campus, I hadn’t seen the city itself until I arrived for my college orientation … just in time for Elvis Week. Imagine my surprise upon seeing flocks of Elvis impersonators flooding the streets of my new city. What is your favorite local festival? BBQ Fest. There is a reason people come from all over the world for this. From the multistory tents along the river to the slow-cooked pork, chicken, alligator and anything in between, it’s hard not to be impressed by BBQ Fest. Read the full article at The Daily News

(The Tennessean) In my last column, I wrote about the progress that Tennessee’s network of accelerators has made since 2012 and the new “Accelerator 2.0” structure. Six accelerators across the state are in the middle of industry-specific summer cohort programs: Jumpstart Foundry in Nashville, ZeroTo510 and the Start Co. programs in Memphis, autoXLR8R in Spring Hill, MediaWorks in Knoxville and GIGTANK in Chattanooga. All of these programs began in May and will end with demo days later this month or in August. Nashville’s Jumpstart Foundry is the oldest of the programs — this is its fifth cohort — and it also recently received national recognition as one of the best accelerators in the country from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and TechCrunch. Over the past five years, 30 companies have graduated from Jumpstart Foundry, and 65 percent of those are still in business. Most have gone on to raise substantial amounts of outside capital. View the full article at The Tennessean

Silicon Valley is a sort of Mecca for startups. Facebook, Google, Apple: It’s enough to make a budding techie salivate. But Silicon Valley should watch out for “Bluff Valley:” Memphis was named one of the top ten places for startups by a recent NerdWallet study. “We have one team from Silicon Valley, we have two teams from New York,” said e-publisher Screwpulp CEO Richard Billings, “One of the great things about Memphis is it doesn’t cost as much to start up. Just the cost of living, the cost of office space, the taxes, everything is 4.8-percent lower than the national average.” Screwpulp was just a pitch in 2012 at a Start Co. event, 48 Hour Launch; two years later, it has a staff of five and growing, office space downtown, and a growing user base. View the full article at My Fox Memphis