Endeavor, a global entrepreneurship non-profit, is expanding in Birmingham, announcing plans to select and support more growth stage founders and launch a new program called “ScaleUp Birmingham” to accelerate the path to Endeavor for the city’s fastest growing start-ups. The initiative will be supported by Alabama Power, Alabama Small Business Capital, and

Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) will launch a start-up incubator to spur innovations in the fields of energy and water. Under the new initiative, FPL will set aside space on its Juno Beach campus for entrepreneurs from around the world. Inventors with compelling ideas can apply for a package of

By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA Spend some time with Stacy Baugues, and you’ll quickly learn that she is passionate about health, wellness and fitness. In fact, the Memphis native and competitive gymnast in high school won $3,000 in 2012 in the “Boyd Venture Challenge” at the University of

Powerhouse Ventures is a new $5.5 million seed stage fund focused on pre-revenue or early revenue companies that engage with digital technology or business-model innovation in the clean energy space. According to this recent article, the California-based entity plans to invest in increments of between $50,000 and $200,000.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another in our on-going series of articles spotlighting the Northeast Tennessee entrepreneurial ecosystem.) By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA “We want to shorten the time it takes for start-ups in Northeast Tennessee to get to where we are,” Edwin Williams says. The Johnson City native,

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first article in a multi-part series providing an update on the pioneering work of long-time Knoxville entrepreneur Sam Weaver.) By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA It had been more than three and one-half years since we had an extensive conversation with Sam Weaver, President

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a six-part series about Knoxville entrepreneur Sam Weaver.) Sam Weaver easily qualified as a serial entrepreneur in the region by the time he left the Dyson Group in 2005. Shortly after leaving, he incorporated Proton Power. Throughout his more than 40 years of

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a series of five articles describing the companies that will make pitches during Tech 20/20’s “Entrepreneurial Imperative 2012” conference November 12 and 13 at the Knoxville Marriott.) Two childhood friends with a passion for music have teamed-up to found a local start-up focused

Grid Fruit, one of the participants in Cohort 3 of the “Innovation Crossroads” (IC) program, has been selected for the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) “Incubatenergy® Labs Challenge.” EPRI and three other organizations including TVA will be hosting demonstration projects with 10 start-ups that start June 1. Both EPRI and Ameren

Knoxvillian Sofia Tomov, fresh off an impressive performance at last week’s  “Pitch for Good: Pandemic Edition,” was pitching Qardian Labs again yesterday in the “Startup Runway 8th Edition” event. Like other pitch competitions, it was in virtual format featuring 10 teams in the program run by Valor Ventures. While she