Registration opens for Knoxville’s “Startup Day” on September 20
Registration opened yesterday for Knoxville’s “Startup Day” event. Scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. EDT as part of the “Innov865 Week,” the annual celebration of the region’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem will be held at The Mill & Mine, 227 West Depot Avenue.
Six of Knoxville’s best start-ups will pitch their companies before a live audience and a panel of judges for the chance to win up to $10,000. Audience members will vote for their favorite start-up to be awarded the $7,000 “Crowd Favorite Award,” presented by the Innov865 Alliance. The $3,000 “Judges’ Choice Award” is sponsored by Truist. The event will also feature the “Traction Award,” presented by Verizon, to a “Startup Day” alum that has gained the most momentum over the past few years. Finally, there will be a fireside chat with local entrepreneurs.
To register, click here.
As previously announced, the six entrepreneurs pitching are:
- Alex Weber whose D3D VR Studios was spotlighted in this recent teknovation.biz article.
- Douglas Mapp whose ThinkUp start-up was also featured in this recent teknovation.biz post.
- Don DeRosa who brought Eonix LLC to the region as a participant in the “Innovation Crossroads” program and most recently made headlines for an exclusive collaboration with Schrödinger Inc. The work, as described in this teknovation.biz article, will accelerate the discovery and design of materials for safer, energy dense lithium-ion batteries.
- Femeika Elliot who won the 2022 edition of the “What’s the Big Idea?” pitch competition for the Lotus Program that operates under the umbrella of her Meik Meals business that provides private dining and catering. We spotlighted her passion for helping women with postpartum in this teknovation.biz article.
- John Phillips of Primeaux who also founded Phillips Forged, well-known in chef circles for its high-end knives. As described in this 2020 teknovation.biz article, Primeaux is the brand name for what Phillips says will be “the world’s finest cookware,” made from carbon steel.
- Ryan Ginder of Windfall, a start-up with ties to the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF) and a participant in the inaugural cohort of the “Spark Cleantech Accelerator.” The UTRF News spotlighted Ginder’s work in this November 2021 article.
