By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA A student from the University of Tennessee’s (UT) Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education captured the top prize in the latest “Vol Court Speaker Series & Pitch Competition.” Erica Grant, a Virginia Tech graduate who is working on her doctorate in

Scott Kupor, Managing Partner of well-known venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and a fireside chatter at the 2016 “36|86 Conference” in Nashville, is upbeat about the technology start-up market for 2017. Read his thoughts here.  Speaking of venture capital, look for our annual angel and venture capital outlook series that starts

And I thought a gigabit was really good. Well, keeping up with the Joneses just got tougher. A neighboring community to our east has just announced the country’s first city-wide 10 gigabit network.

They are described as the “gurus of entrepreneurship.” Here is one person’s take on “eight truly inspiring people whose lives can teach hard lessons in entrepreneurship.”

The Founder and Executive Director of a venture capital firm discusses “three trends that are beginning to challenge venture capital — in a good way.”

The New Orleans BioFund was established to offer low-interest loans of up to $250,000 to fund equipment and sales inventory purchases for life science start-ups. Thus far, it has invested $3 million in 15 companies. Learn more here.

It was the first ever joint “Demo Day for two Memphis-based accelerators – “ZeroTo510” and the several components of Start Co. Click here for a report on the festivities.

This author identifies three qualities that he traditionally finds in Millennials that make them ideal hires for a start-up. What are they? Read more here.

This might be a surprising statistic. In a recent survey of participants in a start-up accelerators, 30 percent of the respondents cited drawbacks in the mentorship component of their program. Any entrepreneur will tell you that having a good mentor is critically important part of the puzzle. There are some suggested solutions. Read more

One of this year’s “The TENN” finalists has been selected to receive a special award. Sarah Bellos, the Founder and President of Stony Creek Colors, is this year’s recipient of the “Young Entrepreneur Award” presented by the Association of Textile, Apparel & Materials Professionals. The award will be presented next week, and