FounderDating touts itself as “the premiere online network for entrepreneurs to connect with cofounders.” The concept is simple but powerful: create a network of entrepreneurs – of differing talents and experience – who are eager to take on a new venture or project. Best case, you find the cofounder of your dreams- or at least one who will fuel your dreams to fruition. Worst case, you still gain a pretty impressive network. And if you’ve spent any time in the startup world you know how invaluable your network is! Their team includes cofounder and Chief Connector Jessica Alter, also a mentor for 500 Startups; Microsoft’s Director of Corporate Development Brian Shultz; and The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development co-author Patrick Vlaskovitz. And that’s just a sampling of FounderDating’s incredible team that’s already rolled out their network to cities like Austin, Las Vegas and Washington, DC. So we’ll cut to the chase: we want Memphis to be included in the FounderDating network. For that to happen we need 75 applications for membership to be submitted. If you’re an entrepreneur looking to start your next project, or interested in joining forces with a founder who has a bold idea, please apply here. Applicants will be screened, including for skill sets, as they’re looking for 50% engineers. Once we reach 75 qualified applications Memphis will be “unlocked” and can access the FounderDating network. NOTE: FounderDating has also partnered with Teach for America to create FounderDating Education. We know Memphis is ground zero for

Are you an artrepreneur? Design can help build a business from the ground up. Is yours? Find out how your talent could be influencing way more than logos and letterheads — and meet the newest tech startups that want to make it happen. See what happens when a wickedly talented design community meets an on-fire startup scene. Featuring our Designers + Startups panel of experts:    JD Graffam, founder of Simple Focus    Eric Mathews, co-founder of Launch Memphis and Seed Hatchery    Gary Backaus, Chief Creative Officer at archer>malmo    Patrick Woods, Director at a>m ventures    Cliff McKinney & Brad Montgomery, co-founders of Work for Pie    Michael Graber, co-founder of Southern Growth Studio You won’t find this kind of expertise in one room anywhere else! Click here for tickets. AIGA Memphis presents: Designers + Startups Tuesday, Feb 19, 7:00pm @ Emerge Memphis (516 Tennessee St.) *FREE for AIGA members and students. Just $10 for non-members. BYOBC (Bring Your Own Business Cards)

A defining characteristic of modern Memphis is a sense of hustle, or as our local NBA team, the Memphis Grizzlies have described it, “Grit and Grind.” This ethos, while difficult to nail down, captures the no-nonsense attitude folks in Memphis have toward creating great things. — Patrick Woods The Wall Street Journal publishes a blog called The Accelerators where national level mentors – like Steve Blank and Brad Feld – provide strategies and insights around entrepreneurship. This week they focused on the question: Can startups be successful anywhere in the U.S.? Then they invited five – “lesser known entrepreneurial hubs” – to respond. Memphis was selected, as was Omaha, Boulder, Portland and Washington, DC. This is a tremendous testament to Memphis’ growing ecosystem of support for early stage, high growth potential entrepreneurs. Indeed, we’re proud that today’s Accelerators includes posts from our founding CEO Eric Mathews, as well as some of our strongest partners and champions, Meg Crosby, Jan Bouten, Emily Brackstone and Patrick Woods. To me though, there is something more important we have learned as a country in the past five years: Not only can startups succeed anywhere, but cities can also be deliberate about creating the fertile ground for high growth potential entrepreneurship. The key is entrepreneurial leaders in these communities stepping up to build the infrastructure for their fellow entrepreneurs. — Eric Mathews We opened our doors in 2008 as a community project where entrepreneurs with bold ideas could take the real steps of starting up;

by Andre Fowlkes, co-president of LaunchYourCity, Inc. full editorial available here in the Commercial Appeal For years, Memphis has been among the nation’s top 20 cities, ranked by population. But measured by total economic output — a gauge known as the Gross Metropolitan Product — metro Memphis (the city and its suburbs) ranks an anemic No. 44. There are only a few big cities — think El Paso, Texas, or Jacksonville, Fla. — where things are as out of kilter. What’s worse, Memphis has been slipping steadily for years. And based on forecasts for the U.S. economy next year, things are unlikely to get much better. Jan Hatzius, chief economist for Global Investment Research at Goldman Sachs, sees 2 percent growth for the U.S. economy in 2013. So the question becomes, how can Memphis defy expectations and outperform the nation? The answer? Build new businesses in growing industries. If ever there was a time to pump up our GMP and break out of our rut, it would be now, while the rest of the nation is stagnant and not when things get moving again. It starts with talent, and right now we have great human assets who are eager to build businesses. But we are lacking two areas: technical and CEO-level talent…. If we solve these two missing components, the investment capital will find its way here. … I think the city should put together an incentive program to recruit this technical and CEO-level talent to Memphis, and then match

by Eric Mathews, founding CEO of LaunchYourCity, Inc. The headline above probably sounds more like something you would find on top of an Onion article, but the fact is LaunchYourCity and our sister programs in other cities like Chicago, Nashville, Austin, Cleveland, and Chattanooga have already cracked the code on job creation. While economic development efforts have traditionally focused on relocating manufacturing and warehousing projects to our community, our LaunchYourCity method of focusing on high growth potential startups represents an equally large, if not better, opportunity for our community and our country. When talking with others I will usually reference 3 key data points: New firms zero to five years of age on average add 4 new jobs per year. If not for startup businesses, we would have had net job loss in the United States over the last three decades. If not for innovation-based high growth potential startups, we would have had net job loss over the last decade. Recently I came across two new data points that I will be adding to our discussion with local leaders and contributors. Every new technology job in a city creates five additional local jobs outside the sector. Two of the five positions on average are in professional work — doctors, lawyers — and the three others in non-professional occupations — waiters, store clerks. Technology’s multiplier effect of 5 additional jobs compares with 1.6 jobs for manufacturing. I don’t fault our community leaders for focusing in on traditional jobs in existing industry.

Did you know that Tennessee led the nation yet again with the most Global Entrepreneurship Week events? And we were proud to contribute to that achievement through a week’s worth of new programming that welcomed new entrepreneurs, provided resources to our existing network and further developed our innovation ecosystem. On Monday we introduced Pitch Perfect, a formal pitch session where those moving forward with their startups received feedback from a diverse panel of industry experts. Seven presenters pitched ideas ranging in focus from personal training games to microgreens to an online registry for those in time of need. A recurring theme when talking to startups in Seed Hatchery and Zero to 510 is the invaluable support that comes through mentorship. To that end we are launching the new Memphis Venture Mentors that will serve all of our programs, and hosted our first Mentor Orientation and Mixer on Tuesday evening at Alchemy. Twenty-five potential mentors joined us, along with a number of entrepreneurs. On Wednesday Chris West of Need Registry (who pitched to FUBU founder and Shark Tank investor Daymond John earlier this year thanks to the Lipscomb Pitts Breakfast Club) was featured on WREG’s morning show. We again partnered with the Society of Entrepreneurs on Thursday for Core Conversations, a luncheon where current entrepreneurs gain insights and make powerful connections with veteran entrepreneurs like Dr. Mary McDonald, Dan Poag and Hilliard Crews. On Friday we hosted our inaugural Field Day, and rented Minglewood Hall in honor of the auspicious occasion.

by Eric Mathews, founding CEO of LaunchYourCity Many people walk in our doors with ideas they believe will change the world and make them rich.  The problem they invariably have is that they can’t build it.  95% of these potential founders have an idea for an mobile app or web app and they want the LaunchYourCity team to play matchmaker to a developer.  These potential founders don’t realize that the developer probably has his own awesome ideas.  Why would he switch from developing his ideas to developing yours?  These potential founders will get no where fast with developers because they have ignored the obvious: a developer is your first investor. Like all investments you need to earn the right to ask! Here is the typical scenario. A non-technical founder approaches a potential technical co-founder with just an idea. These potential founders usually have very little skin in the game. They haven’t invested a ton of their own time, but expect a developer to contribute 100s of hours. They haven’t even dipped into their own funds to get something mocked up or designed. These potential founders have not invested energy into determining who the customer is, understanding their buying behaviors, or even determine if they would want the app and pay for it. The outcome is always the same. The developer says no and gets annoyed with wannabe entrepreneurs and gets turned off to the startup world. This is a very bad outcome for our entire community.  It could all be

As part of our new Upstart Memphis initiative to empower more women through our entrepreneurial ecosystem, we’re hosting a special edition of our 48 Hour Launch. On December 7-9 we invite you to help launch women’s startups over a single weekend. Pitch ideas. Collaborate. Develop products. Launch companies. Not your average, ordinary weekend. Are you a woman with an innovative idea and an entrepreneurial streak? You have two minutes on Friday night to pitch your concept and inspire the crowd. If successful you’ll get to publicly introduce your new company on Sunday evening. More interested in applying your professional skills toward a goal that fuels economic development and elevates creative talent? Then vote for your favorite pitch, join a team and dive into development. Startups need marketers, lawyers, accountants, graphic designers, developers, and UX specialists. In short, they need you. Please note: while we’re kickstarting women’s owned businesses, we invite men and women of all skills and backgrounds to be part of the teams that build these companies of tomorrow. On Sunday evening each proud albeit exhausted team will present its business to the community. For every 20 attendees we create opportunity for another startup to be built. And the more entrepreneurs we recruit, the higher the chances of discovering bold, audacious ideas with high growth potential. More than community engagement, this event fosters true community investment. Where else for only 48 hours and $40 can you: Launch brand new tech-supported companies, contributing toward our local innovation economy and creating jobs; Learn

“Cloud for Good” is a local cloud consulting firm quickly becoming a familiar name nationwide for organizations looking to develop their own solutions on top of the Salesforce platform. CEO & Founder Tal Frankfurt first had the idea to start his own business when working for a non-profit in Israel. He discovered Salesforce as a great tool to manage relationships and recognized a growing need to bring the power of Salesforce to other organizations. Tal moved to Memphis and like many entrepreneurs before him, started operating out of his home. After discovering LaunchMemphis though, Tal promptly made the Launchpad his interim office. It was a great opportunity to leave the house and to see people who were going through the same process as me. – Tal Frankfurt After just six months in the Launchpad, Tal hired his first employee and moved into new office space at Emerge Memphis. Today, Cloud for Good has eight employees and a rosy outlook on the future. Some entrepreneurs have built and operated highly successful businesses from home, but most require separation between the home and the office. If you are a local entrepreneur trying to start a business, you should definitely look in to working out of the Launchpad until you can get your business off the ground!