Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Dozens of people gathered at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee on Tuesday for the inaugural Rural Entrepreneurship Summit, hosted by The Company Lab (CO.LAB). The entrepreneur center, focused on Southeastern Tennessee, is tasked with catering to two vastly different groups of entrepreneurs – sustainable mobility founders, and rural founders.

The goal of Tuesday’s event was to serve the latter, specifically through four main silos: Why it’s important. How to do it. How we did it. And, how you can do it.

Leaning on collaboration from local leaders, partners, investors, and entrepreneurs, the half-day event walked attendees through what it would take to set up entrepreneurship hubs in towns across Tennessee. Easier said than done, right?

Lynn Chesnutt, the Executive Director at Tennessee Small Business Development Centers (TSBDC), and figure in the Chattanooga start-up ecosystem kicked off the summit with a look at how small businesses fuel Tennessee’s economy.

“A growing company in a rural community changes the trajectory of people’s lives. It gives them jobs, it gives them purpose, and it gives them a reason to stay and raise their families,” he said.

Chesnutt said that for many entrepreneurs – both in cities and out in the country – the number one struggle is not funding as many may think. The biggest struggle, in his opinion, is adequate planning.

Bridget Jones, the CEO and Principal of Jones-Bridget Consulting Group, and the lead consultant for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Main Street Initiative shared how to build entrepreneurial ecosystems. She pointed at neighboring entrepreneur centers like the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC), The Company Lab (CO.LAB), and The Biz Foundry in Cookeville as prime examples for how to execute a plan.

“Small business and entrepreneurial development is economic development,” she emphasized.

Local city and county leaders, as well as a number of economic developers attended the inaugural conference. Jones painted a picture for how to set up connections for mentor networks, programming, funding structures, and how to reach existing entrepreneurs who may be operating out of the limelight.

She even used Knoxville’s entrepreneurial landscape as the standard for other counties in East Tennessee to model after. The organization chart, created by the KEC, shows all the community partners, and where their services come into play for East Tennessee entrepreneurs. She encouraged other communities to take action in creating a flow chart of their local resources.

Dr. Michael Aikins, the Assistant Vice President for Economic Development and the Founding Director Center for Rural Innovation at Tennessee Technological University (TCRI) thoughtfully shared with attendees how he was able to launch a successful program in the rural Cookeville area. Currently, the TCRI serves the 14 counties in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee; however, Aikens said his goal is to one day serve all 78 counties defined as “rural” in the state.

The TCRI helps people with ideas turn them into legitimate businesses through connecting with resources, capital investments, and a skilled workforce. They can help write grants, connect interns, and assist founders in furthering their commercialization strategies.

The Rural Entrepreneurship Summit was a first of its kind event offered by the CO.LAB. For more information, visit the website.

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