Photographed at the offices of the Lamp Post Group on Monday, Apr. 4, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn., Allan Davis, Barry Large and Ted Alling, from left, are the founders of Access America Transport, a company they sold in 2014. They have recently launched Dynamo, a company that is a logistics accelerator. In 2016, Chattanooga became home to the Dynamo Accelerator, a program that aims to help launch tech startup companies in the logistics, transportation and supply chain business, along with Dynamo’s sibling, an $18 million venture capital fund. The $18 million number was 50 percent more than the fund’s original target and one of the biggest capital raises ever for a VC fund in Chattanooga.
Three Chattanoogans are the driving force behind both ventures: Ted Alling, Barry Large and Allan Davis.
The trio met at a fraternity at Samford University in Alabama and, after graduating from college, they started Access America Transport and built the company into a nearly $600 million-a-year logistics business before selling the company in 2014 to Coyote Logistics, which was acquired for $1.8 billion a year later by United Parcel Service. Even before selling their business, the entrepreneurs founded the Lamp Post Group, a business incubator headquartered in the second floor of the historic Loveman’s department store building in downtown Chattanooga. It offers business startups working space, back-office support and early-stage funding in exchange for a percent of ownership.
Lamp Post is based on the model that launched Access America and made millionaires of the Alling, Large and Davis in their mid-30s when they sold their Chattanooga-based trucking logistics startup.
Access America for years was housed in a back room of Key-James Brick, a business owned by Large’s father, James H. Large. Complimentary office space, consistent mentorship and access to cash helped launch the third-party logistics company that doubled its sales nearly every year for 12 years.