Business Briefs: Judges pick winners for Startup Week

Sean Henry with the company Stord gives a business pitch at the Dynamo Demo Day event at the Tivoli Theater on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. 10 logistics startup companies which took part in a 12-week startup accelerator program pitched their plans at the event.
Sean Henry with the company Stord gives a business pitch at the Dynamo Demo Day event at the Tivoli Theater on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. 10 logistics startup companies which took part in a 12-week startup accelerator program pitched their plans at the event.

Judges pick winners for Startup Week

The winners of this year's Chattanooga Startup Week competition were honored as the weeklong celebration wrapped up Friday.

The winners, picked by a 5-member committee of startup consultants and veterans, include:

- Business to Business: AudiencePoint, an email management system that helps deliver messages at the best time.

- Business to Customer: Pass it Down, a digital storytelling platform

- Education: Tech Goes Home, a training program to teach those without computers how to get connected

- Bootstrapper: The Bitter Alibi, a downtown restaurant

- Startup Advocate of the Year: Mike Bradshaw , the outgoing director of the Co.Lab

- Startup of the Year: Collider, a high-speed industrial 3D printer.

"Startup Week is one of my favorite times of the year in Chattanooga," said Startup Awards committee chair, Julia Bursch. "And the awards ceremony is my favorite event of the week since it's the moment we get to shine a spotlight on our incredible innovators and the young companies they're growing."

Wholesale inventories dip but sales improve

U.S. wholesale businesses whittled down their inventories in August, even as sales improved.

The Commerce Department said Friday that wholesaler stockpiles fell 0.2 percent in August from July. Inventories of hardware, electrical equipment, pharmaceutical drugs, clothing and farm products declined. But sales picked up 0.7 percent during the same period, with gains in many of the same categories in addition to autos and groceries.

Wholesalers are still adjusting to a prior slowdown that caused inventory levels to rise relative to sales volume.

Consumer borrowing grows in August

American consumers stepped up their borrowing in August, taking on greater debt in a possible sign of optimism amid stable job growth.

Total consumer borrowing rose $25.9 billion in August to nearly $3.7 trillion outstanding, the Federal Reserve said Friday Consumer debt is rising at an annual pace of 8.5 percent, the strongest clip since September of last year.

Revolving credit, which covers credit cards, increased $5.6 billion, an annual gain of 7 percent. The category that includes auto and student loans jumped $20.2 billion, an increase of more than 9 percent from a year ago.

Georgia trucker ordered to halt all operations

Safety officials are ordering a trucking company that was recently involved in an explosion while hauling automobile air bag inflators to take its vehicles off the road after finding a long list of serious safety violations.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says Industrial Transit Inc. of LaGrange, Georgia, must immediately halt all operations because the company poses "an imminent hazard to public safety."

One of the company's trucks was hauling Takata inflators in August when it crashed, caught fire, exploded and destroyed a house near the small Texas border town of Quemado. A woman was killed and four others injured.

Verizon cuts retail jobs as wireless growth slows

Verizon has cut jobs in stores across the country as it deals with increasing competition in the wireless industry.

Union representative Tim Dubnau estimates that Verizon has cut hundreds or even thousands of jobs.

Verizon spokeswoman Kim Ancin said Friday that stores will have fewer employees but refused to specify the size of Thursday's layoff. She says estimates of thousands of cuts are "an exaggeration."

Upcoming Events