
Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s board approves a big hairy audacious goal
When the three-year plan ends in 2027, it wants to be serving 1,000 entrepreneurs annually.
Sam Davidson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (NEC), says his board of directors has signed off on what might be described as a BHAG – a big hairy audacious goal. By the end of 2027, when the newest three-year vision is due to be completed, the organization wants to be serving 1,000 entrepreneurs annually.
That’s a significant jump from less than 100 entrepreneurs who participated in its five accelerator programs in 2023 and a slightly larger number – 120 – who were part of the accelerators offered in 2024.
Named CEO in late June 2023, Davidson says he has spent the past 18 months analyzing the best strategy to serve more entrepreneurs. That analysis resulted in these first two pieces of the puzzle announced in late 2024:
- MEMBERSHIP – a simplified membership structure, which dropped from seven to three (only one of which was mentor-based). As described in this biz article, the three membership levels now range in cost from $49 per month to $300 per month.
- PROGRAMS – Revamped to streamline the delivery of all five accelerator programs, including the application process. This included converting PreFlight (helps anyone with a business idea) into a digital offering and launching a new accelerator, TakeOff (helps at the launch phase).

“Twelve weeks is about right for the curriculum portion of the accelerators,” Davidson says, and the NEC will offer two cohorts a year.
Cohort 1 will run from February 24 to May 16, and Cohort 2 runs from September 8 to December 5.
The five accelerators help increase an entrepreneur’s likelihood of success, beginning with TakeOff, which helps at the launch phase, then with InFlight to help those who are ready to scale. Twendé is for founders of color and has transitioned from virtual to in-person. Plus there are two industry specific accelerators – Project FinTech is for pre-seed and seed stage start-ups in the financial sector, and Project Healthcare is for healthcare businesses ready to scale.
Davidson says that Project FinTech and Project Healthcare are open to investable companies, and the latter program recruits nationally because of Nashville’s prominence in the healthcare sector.
There is also value created for both the Nashville EC and participating entrepreneurs that accrue from the new schedule.
“By having the accelerators run twice-a-year at the same time, we create efficiencies and crossover opportunities,” Davidson says, explaining that while entrepreneurs might be in different programs, those creative collisions that occur around the coffee shop or printer can add value.
Also newly added is a structure for capital support, which is fundamental to everything the Nashville EC does. This new system – ARC (awareness, readiness, and connections) – aims to prepare founders for investment conversations with more than 144 angels, venture capitalists, and other sources of support.
To get help from Nashville Entrepreneur Center, visit ec.co.
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