Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From Nashville but with Statewide Implications:

Launch Tennessee has announced the dates for the 2024 edition of its annual “3686” entrepreneur conference. The multi-day event, which draws the Southeast’s top entrepreneurs and investors to Nashville every year, will be held September 9-11. Additional details will be announced later.

From Piqua, OH but with Local Implications:

Sarah Jordan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skuld LLC, has closed on about 32,000 feet of industrial space in Piqua, OH, a city just north of Dayton. In a social media post, the participant in Cohort 2023 of the “Innovation Crossroads” program operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) wrote, “Interestingly, this place is 14 miles north of the garage where we started this adventure several years ago. We are taking over and rehabbing the former Champion Foundry which closed almost seven years ago and converting it into a lost foam foundry with heattreating and finishing. We also will be building additive manufacturing equipment fabrication for our patent pending AMEC (additive manufacturing evaporative casting) process. The plan is to install our three induction furnaces and get 3,000 tons of casting capacity online by April with additional expansions planned for next year since we are already quoting orders above that capacity. If you need castings or other metal parts, let us know. Current max part size 500 pounds and wide range of alloys.”

From Johnson City:

FoundersForge, the support organization focused on underdog entrepreneurs, has issued an impact report covering the slightly more than three years since the nonprofit was launched just ahead of the COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020.

“Although the timing for launching a nonprofit entrepreneurial center was less than ideal, it was a critical time for the businesses that our start-up community rallied to support. That was a big year of impact, but it was only the beginning,” the organization wrote in its 2023 Impact Report. FoundersForge highlights the fact that there are now more than 70 start-ups in the community compared to about 10 in 2014. More than 170 companies have been impacted and 150 coaching events held, according to the report. A 2023 highlight was “Startup Mountain Summit” where 160 people from seven states attended.

“As we look ahead into 2024, we can already see that this year will be the biggest year yet! Our region has some very exciting opportunities coming to the start-up and small business community. And while growth also presents challenges, we recognize the potential for local entrepreneurs to capitalize on the opportunities it brings,” according to the organization.

From Nashville:

ObjectiveHealth, an integrated specialty research network and technology company, has announced that it has secured a strategic growth investment from Vitruvian Partners, a global growth-focused investment firm. Known as an innovator in clinical research, ObjectiveHealth seamlessly integrates clinical trials into the practices of physicians, while deploying proprietary advanced technology to identify and recruit patients for the trials.

According to this recent news release, Vitruvian’s investment will provide the capacity for ObjectiveHealth to expand its operations and continue its rapid pace of growth. The company opened its 30^th research center-of-excellence in Amarillo, TX last year. ObjectiveHealth also

• Launched ObjectiveScreen, an artificial intelligence-powered feasibility and recruitment platform to optimize clinical trial performance;
• Unveiled ObjectiveView, a technology portal that provides the sponsors of clinical trials with an unprecedented level of transparency into the process; and
• Continued to expand its research portfolio into dermatology, urology, and oncology, in addition to gastroenterology, at its partnered research sites across the country.

Also from Nashville:

Jumpstart Foundry will hold its “First Look” for the Fall 2023 cohort starting at 12:30 p.m. CST on February 23. The virtual event will introduce the eight participating companies to the broader community. They are: ​American Medical Wallet LLC; Paradym Health Inc.; Computing ReApplied; Locera Vision; Home Health Pro LLC; TheraMotive; UpTrials; and uMore.

To register, click this link.

---