Panel explores the past and future of entrepreneurship in Chattanooga
It was partly a trip down memory lane and also a focus on the future when a group of individuals gathered for a live conversation on Wednesday about the “Future of Entrepreneurship in Chattanooga.”
The 60-minute discussion was part of the week-long “Startup Week Chattanooga” celebration. After nearly 90 sessions, the curtain comes down on the 2020 event this afternoon. Much of the focus during the Wednesday afternoon conversation focused on two initiatives launched in the 2007-08 period – EPB’s deployment of the city’s well-known gigabit network ahead of Google fiber and the five-year run of something called Create Here that spawned a number of other efforts.
Organized by Text Request and moderated by Kenneth Burke (pictured upper right), the company’s Director of Marketing, the panel included (clockwise from Burke): (1) Mary Fortune, a Business Reporter with the Chattanooga Times Free Press and Editor of EDGE magazine; (2) Ted Alling, Co-Founder of Lamp Post Group and Dynamo Fund; (3) Alexis Willis, Director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce; and (4) Charlie Brock, Partner in the Chattanooga Renaissance Fund and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Launch Tennessee.
All of the panelists were upbeat on the community and its future with Brock offering two key observations. Quoting Brad Feld, he noted that Chattanooga is 13 years into what the well-known author said is a 20-year journey to create a very vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. At the same time, but later in the discussion, Brock said that he did not think the city had that North Star that it needs going forward. “We’re lacking a little bit about that right now,” he observed. “We’re ready for another big boost of momentum.”
Fortune, who writes about the start-up scene in the Gig City, described the EPB network as a “gamechanger” and “something audacious,” enabling efforts like the “Chattanooga Smart Community Collaborative.” She also said that recent grants won by the Center for Urban Informatics and Progress at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga would not have occurred without the network.
A number of the panelists talked about the EPB network as a draw for people who are exiting big cities due to COVID-19 and the increasing ability to work remotely from anywhere with robust internet access.
Alling, a successful entrepreneur who was part of a big exit, struck a theme that was also part of a conversation earlier on Wednesday with Craig Fuller, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FreightWaves. Like so many communities, Chattanooga needs more exits – something that Alling said was on the horizon.
“We need more of that so people will take a risk,” he said. Another of his priorities is to triple down on education to reverse a brain drain the city has experienced. In that regard, Alling and his wife recently launched a charter school.
Willis was involved in the Create Here initiative that had a five-year timeline from start to completion. In that 60-month period, it spawned a number of programs including CO.LAB and CO.STARTERS and the revitalization of an area of the city that became a draw for talent.
“It was a magical time,” she said.
