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. Chattanooga's big three are back at it.
Ted Alling, Barry Large and Allan Davis - the three entrepreneurs best known for founding, and selling, Access America Transport - announced in March their latest, biggest venture: a three-month logistics accelerator program called Dynamo, which will be housed at Lamp Post Group's Market Street offices.
Alling, Large and Davis are also founding partners at Lamp Post Group.
All in their mid-30s, the three have already enjoyed tremendous success as businessmen, having propelled Access America to nine-digit sales numbers before selling the company to Chicago-based Coyote Logistics in 2014 for an undisclosed amount. UPS later bought Coyote Logistics in 2015 for $1.8 billion.
Now, two years since the sale of the company that they founded in the back of Large's father's brick business, the three are returning to transportation and greight moving - and intend to bring the best logistics talent in the world with them and plant the flag establishing Chattanooga's place as the top logistics town in the country.
Dynamo will seek to bring 10 top, innovative logistics teams to Chattanooga and help them grow ideas and business from July through October, culminating in a demonstration day. But that's not where the program stops: a sister, $12 million early stage investment fund has also been established to finance the top performers from the accelerator program.
Alling, Large and Davis say it makes sense to carve out the logistics niche here, given the city's deep transportation roots and heritage, and given an opportunity to raise up logistics research and work, instead of pushing it aside, like in other tech communities (like Silicon Valley).
"We feel like we marry all of that together," says Large. "It's going to be pretty special."
In addition to oversight and mentoring by Alling, Large and Davis, Dynamo will also bring in former Techsters managing director Jon Bradford and Dynamo director Santosh Sankar.
Alling, Large and Davis are managing partners of the $12 million investment fund.
They're excited to jump back in and tackle another big project together. The three college friends and former fraternity brothers have managed to strike the right balance as friends and business partners for more than a decade now.
In April, they were also the youngest entrepreneurs ever inducted into the UTC College of Business Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.
"There have been a lot of moments of fighting, and a lot of moments of celebration," said Large during the trio's acceptance speech.