Investor Outlook kickoff | An introduction to the investors across Tennessee
In our first Investor Outlook of the year, we dive into the people who are investing in start-ups across the state of Tennessee.
Since the inception of Teknovation in 2012, the publication has featured an annual investor outlook series in January to paint a picture of deal flow, investor appetites, and predictions for the upcoming year.
This year is no different, except for one change: this year, we’re bringing video into the mix.
Over the next seven weeks, seven venture capitalists, angel investors, and lenders from across Tennessee will provide insights in their own words, reflecting on 2025 and their plans for the new year.
Each Monday, you will see the full-length video linked above, and the responses printed below.
Introductions
Brandon Bruce, Market Square Ventures
“We founded Market Square Ventures two years ago here in Knoxville to address an access to capital gap. We were excited to back founders that are based here in Knoxville and throughout the state of Tennessee. So far, we have backed 21 founding teams and companies across the state,” Bruce said.
Market Square Ventures invests in early-stage startups in pre-seed or seed rounds, and occasionally in series A. They primarily write checks in the range of $100,000 to $250,000, and are also a recipient of multi-fund money from Invest Tennessee, which helps them operate a sidecar fund.
Eric Dobson, Community Equity Partners (CEP) and Community Equity Ventures (CEV)
“Our angel group (CEP) spends a lot of time with strong intellectual property-backed technology companies. We’ve built a whole model around helping those entrepreneurs switch from an inventor mindset to an entrepreneur mindset and helping them create great companies,” Dobson explained. “CEP will make the first investments in startup companies, then as they mature in the process, they’ll naturally matriculate into the Community Equity Ventures.”
Dobson said CEV will begin making its first round of investments in Q1 of 2026. Both CEP and CEV will continue to focus on research-backed innovation companies in the realms of advanced manufacturing, biotech, cleantech, and femtech, and more.
“I love working with entrepreneurs. They’re great people. They’re doing incredible things, they’re changing the world,” Dobson said.
Cam Doody, Brickyard
Brickyard, founded by Cam Doody and Matt Patterson, was established about four and a half years ago. They are on their second fund and approaching the launch of their third fund in Q1 of 2026.
So far, they’ve invested in 53 companies, averaging 10-12 investments per year. The companies Brickard invests in have to work on-site at the Brickyard building in Chattanooga until they reach ~$1 million in revenue.
“We are very curious in a very specific type of founder. Tech is just moving too fast now to predict the future of what companies are going to do well at the pre-seed stage. And so, in our opinion, the only investable and predictable thing at pre-seed is the types of people that will build the companies that are going to win over the next decade,” Doody said.
Eller Kelliher, Invest Tennessee
The investment arm of Launch Tennessee, InvestTN, is investing $70 million into Tennessee-based startups through equity investments. Teh investments are industry agnostic, but have to be based in Tennessee and have a vision for a potential venture-scale exit.
It is the largest investment fund specifically for Tennessee-based founders in the state.
“So far, we’ve actually deployed just over 20 million into Tennessee small businesses, and are thrilled to be partnering with so many amazing founders all across the state of Tennessee,” Kelliher said.
Travis Manasco, Solas Bioventures
Solas started as an angel investing group in Chattanooga and has grown significantly. They now also have offices in the Research Triangle Park in Chapel Hill and Minneapolis. Solas is on its third fund and invests in early-stage med tech and life science, therapeutics, and healthcare AI.
“Our mission starts at the bedside, and it’s kind of rooted in the physician and the patient experience. We want to make a monumental impact for patients–not incremental. We want to fund the therapeutics, devices, or software that’s going to drastically improve patients’ lives, or have the potential for that,” Manasco said.
Jay Shaffer, Atlanta Tech Angels (ATA), Venture South
Atlanta Tech Angels is a volunteer angel organization in Atlanta that looks for companies with a minimum viable product (MVP) with a paid or unpaid pilot that have traction. Their geographic focus is the Southeast.
Venture South is a larger organization that rolls up 22 Angel chapters throughout the southeast. That group comes into play at a bit later stages, once a product, service, or software company is ready to go to market.
“I feel very fortunate to work with ATA for the earliest-stage companies. And then some of those companies have gone on to be invested in with Venture South as well,” Shaffer said.
Grady Vanderhoofven, Three Roots Capital (3 Roots)
3Roots is a non-profit financial institution with a regional economic development focus.
“We’re not a traditional VC, and we’re not a bank. We do have the capacity to make equity investments and to provide debt in the form of venture debt or loans. We’re driven by a desire to do well by doing good, which means we deploy capital to generate a return on investment,” Vanderhoofven said. “Our goal is to create positive economic impacts in the community.”
Haley ‘Zap’ Zapolski, Lighthouse
Lighthouse is an invite-only coworking and community space for tech entrepreneurs in Nashville. Zap founded the space after years of working with founders and recognizing some recurring gaps. She said it’s not a VC firm, an accelerator, or an incubator, but it’s also kind of all three at the same time.
She is a pre-seed investor who writes 12 personal “Scout” checks of $5k per month into Nashville startups.
“The Lighthouse is all about building founder density. We believe here that a dense founder community helps all founders win, and we’re just the place where the scaling tech founders hang out and cross paths,” she said.
Next Monday’s question in the 2026 Investor Outlook series revolves around positive and negative reflections on last year’s capital landscape.
You can check out the 2025 Investor Outlook Series here.
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