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October 02, 2014 | Tom Ballard

Closeup.fm, FiveWorx, Feetz selected for Launch Tennessee’s “The TENN”

The TENN 2014Two Knoxville-based start-ups and one that recently relocated to Chattanooga are among those selected for this year’s “The TENN” cohort, a master accelerator program run by Launch Tennessee.

The companies are:

  • Closeup.fm, a recent graduate of the “MediaWorks” accelerator run by the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC);
  • FiveWorx, a participant in last year’s local “VENergy Accelerator” and a finalist in the “Cleantech Open 2013 Global Forum.” The former program was a joint effort of the KEC, Tech 2020, and the University of Tennessee Research Foundation.
  • Feetz, a start-up that participated in this year’s “GIGTANK” program run by CO.LAB.

The East Tennessee start-ups join seven others from across the state to comprise the second “The TENN” cohort. The two Knoxville participants in the 2013 “The TENN” program – Vendor Registry and Survature – captured first and third places in the finale of that inaugural accelerator.

Both Closeup.fm and FiveWorx have been profiled in previous teknovation.biz articles. Closeup.fm was founded by Nathan Fray and Austin Church who have teamed up to bring something new to the music industry, which they say isn’t broken but in transition. In the process, they want to create a bigger musician middle class. Click here to ready our earlier profile on the start-up.

FiveWorx was founded based on work that The Shelton Group was doing to help utilities motivate consumers of electricity to be more efficient in their usage. Its tagline is “Making energy efficiency stick.” Click here for our last post on the company.

Feetz provides custom fit footwear through its SizeMe 3D printed footwear technology.

To learn about the other start-ups in the program, read the Launch Tennessee news release (Launch Tennessee Announces 2014 Class of The TENN).


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