Marcus Shaw
› Job: Chief Executive of The Company Lab› Accomplishments: Co.Lab launched Kiva loan program for business startups, added a new training program for military veterans who want to start businesses, joined in a new research collaborative with UTC and Erlanger hospital and continued to grow its accelerator programs for entrepreneurs and coordinate and lead Chattanooga’s Startup Week of seminars, training and awards.
Co.Lab Executive Director Marcus Shaw poses at the Co.Lab, in the Edeny Building, on Wednesday, July 26, in Chattanooga, Tenn.Marcus Shaw joined The Company Lab in July 2017 as the fourth CEO of the business accelerator program since its start in 2010.
In his first year, Shaw has quickly put his mark on Co.Lab and Chattanooga's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. Co.Lab, which grew out of CreateHere nearly a decade ago to assist startup businesses, is working with other public and privately funded initiatives to provide more loans, counseling, coaching and other services for a wide array of entrepreneurs starting or building new businesses in Chattanooga.
"This is an incredibly supportive community for entrepreneurs and we work every day to help turn great ideas into great businesses," Shaw says.
At the hub of the Innovation District in the Edney Building, Co.Lab pioneered the GigTank, 48-hour launch and a variety of other business accelerator programs in the past eight years. Shaw, a former financial analyst on Wall Street who later served as director of business development and partnerships for Management Leadership for Tomorrow in Washington D.C., is building on those initiatives with a new loan program, research collaborative, a new accelerator for veterans and businesses focused on disability services and treatment.
In October, Co.Lab and the city's Office of Multicultural Affairs launched an online crowdfunding program offered by Kiva to provide no-interest loans of up to $10,000 to entrepreneurs. Shaw said Kiva loans will provide another means of initial seed funding for entrepreneurs and should help their startup phase when costs usually are greater than revenues.
Co.Lab also is playing a key role in a new research collaborative announced in October with EPB and its partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study smart grid technologies, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and its computer simulation program at the Sim Center and Erlanger Health System and its partnership with the UT Medical College and a variety of medical applications testing.
Co.Lab also worked with Bunker Labs this fall on a business accelerator program for veterans starting new businesses and formed a partnership with Unum Group to connect entrepreneurs and technology talent with the Chattanooga-based insurance giant.
"This partnership illustrates how corporate and entrepreneurial ecosystems can work together to foster digital innovation and accelerate results," Shaw says.