Nashville Entrepreneur Center

Mission

The mission of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center is simple: connect entrepreneurs with critical resources to accelerate business creation and growth.

The goal of the entrepreneurcenter.com site: to provide effectively curated resources, and serve as an evolving online knowledge base of the best entrepreneurial tools, tips and videos on the web.

This site will rely on input from the entrepreneurial community.

History

Fall 2007: The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce begins Partnership 2010 Entrepreneurship Task Force: 75 Members (Co-Chairmen Robert A. Frist, Jr. and Michael Shmerling).

October 2008: Entrepreneurship Task Force work completed, recommendations made. Top recommendations included the creation of a Virtual Entrepreneur Resource Center, an online community that connects entrepreneurs with critical resources to accelerate business creation and growth.

November 2008: Nashville Technology Council Board of Directors recommends entrepreneurship as part of NTC brand promise.

January 2009: Ralph Schulz (President & CEO, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce) and Janet Miller (Chief Economic Development and Marketing Officer, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce) ask Tod Fetherling (President & CEO, Nashville Technology Council) to help establish the Entrepreneur Center in partnership with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

February 2009: First Entrepreneur Center advisory board meeting lead by Mark Montgomery.

June 2009: Joe Kustelski selected as the Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s project manager.

June 2009: Accelerator—The Vanderbilt Summer Business Institute, led my Michael Burcham, joins the project and participants help develop a campaign to promote Nashville’s entrepreneurial community and market www.entrepreneurcenter.com.

July 2009: Nashville Entrepreneur Center interns Eric Bilbrey, Lyle Holmes, Meaghan Rymer and Erin Steigerwald join the team to help build the business plan and website.

September 2009: The Nashville Entrepreneur Center and www.entrepreneurcenter.com launches…