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A single event marked the headway that Gig City has made and stands to make more of in living up to its tech-centered nickname.
Startup Week Chattanooga debuted in 2014, joining sister weeks that have rolled out across the country in recent years. The multi-day mixer of thinkers and entrepreneurs spanned design, technology and manufacturing.
It drew talent from out of town that enhanced the perspectives and skills of local startups, those that exist and those that could emerge with the inspiration of a rah-rah gathering that shows ways to make real what seems unattainable. In-town talent proved role models too, creating a co-mingling of forward-thinking minds.
The week offered more than 60 activities, all open to the public free of charge, from workshops on startup strategy and funding to frank discussions on whether Chattanooga is a good place for startups to take root and bloom. Visiting headliners included authors Nicole Gravagna and Chris Guillebeau, Harvard Berkman Center researcher David Weinberger and experiential-learning innovator Victor Saad, to name a few. Home-turf headliners spanned local successes: 26 Tools, DRyan, Granola, Haskel Sears Design, Open Table/Quickcue, Squire Strategies, SwiftWing Ventures and Variable, among others.
It's no surprise that Startup Week came to Chattanooga by way of Lamp Post Group and River City Co., the former a for-profit venture incubator, the latter a nonprofit development company, both fixed on electrifying and expanding Chattanooga's economic growth and innovation. The same can be said of Co.Lab, the nonprofit startup accelerator that put together the whole event and a month after it ended took to looking for feedback on how 2015's Startup Week could best the 2014 event.
A sampling of hard data gives the event some clout: several million dollars of east and west coast investment made it to Gig City tech-based startups last year. Bellhops secured $6 million of investments and other local tech outfits also secured lesser cash infusions from local venture capital firms too. Some startups relocated to Chattanooga, among them Feetz from California. And with several dozen startups working on their visions yearly through Co.Lab, along with some 70 in Chattanooga's business incubator, the trend shouldn't slow in 2015.