Two local tech entrepreneurs launch KnoxFounders.com
Two local technology-focused entrepreneurs – James Horey and Ken Cavagnolo – have created an online community for founders and fellow entrepreneurs in the Knoxville region.
Appropriately named KnoxFounders.com, the new offering consists of a webpage that will list blogs written by local founders along with links to additional resources like co-working spaces, conferences, and meet-ups. In addition, there is also a public Slack community where members can chat with each other, share news, and virtually network.
“Our main motivation was to create a central place for entrepreneurs of all stripes to network and talk with each other,” Horey says. He has been active in the local start-up community, initially during his years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and more recently as Vice President for Data Analytics at Cirruspath, a start-up itself.
Horey founded his own company named OpenCore. It was a tool to help developers create, deploy and manage big data applications in the cloud.
“While organizations like the KEC (Knoxville Entrepreneur Center) do a fantastic job of organizing real-world events, sometimes it’s just nice to talk with other entrepreneurs in an informal setting,” Horey explains. “Also, by hooking into Slack, my hope is to create synergy between the developer community (knoxdevs.com), data and research folks (knoxscience.com), and entrepreneurs (knoxfounders.com).”
Joining Slack is free. To do so, simply click on this link.
Horey sees the new opportunity as a vehicle to further advance the burgeoning local entrepreneurial community.
“I’d love for all the founders and entrepreneurs to join the Slack community, network, and help each other out,” he says, adding that it could be particularly valuable for people that may have just moved to Knoxville.
“I hope it becomes an easy way to find like-minded folks,” Horey says.
