News
W Squared is a JumpStart Foundry Partner and Casey Correnti, W Squared's Vice President of Business Development, is a JumpStart Foundry Founding Member.
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March 10, 2010
Nashville, TN - Solidus Company announces today the formation of a microfund to support local entrepreneurs and to help accelerate the growth of start-ups in the Middle Tennessee area. JumpStart Foundry will focus on very early-stage concepts. Over the next 12 months, the microfund intends to select 10-14 entrepreneurs for the program who will receive financial, business, and technological support to accelerate the growth of their businesses. Each of the selected concepts will receive $15,000 in equity capital and special arrangements with participating partners for marketing, accounting, legal and technology services. In addition, three members of the group will use their knowledge and experience to mentor the entrepreneur and accelerate the success of the project. In return for this investment, JumpStart Foundry will receive a collective 10% ownership in the Common Stock of the company.
Townes Duncan, President of Solidus Company, explained why he believes this fund will make an impact on the local start-up environment. "Traditional venture capital funds require investments to be at least $1-5 million in size. This amount of capital is often much more than an entrepreneur can effectively utilize at the very early-stage of concept development. Over the last few months, Solidus has assembled 18 experienced, successful entrepreneurs who want to solve this early-stage funding gap and share Solidus' passion for helping promising start-ups. Together, this founding group set out to craft a new way to provide support, both financial and operational, to innovative and promising entrepreneurs."
According to founding member Scott Kozicki, "the JumpStart Foundry name is meant to be symbolic of our two-fold mission. The fund intends to help launch or "jump-start" emerging new business concepts. Further, we will also act as a foundry by leveraging our experienced group of founders to help mold the concept into an exciting, emerging business. To complete our offering, Jumpstart Foundry will also establish partnerships with local organizations to offer important business services at either free or dramatically reduced pricing for the fund's investments. These partnerships will allow our entrepreneurs to focus their time and capital towards building value in their company."
"Over the past few years, we have seen models like Y Combinator and Tech Stars mature and grow into significant economic development engines for their communities," said Vic Gatto, Partner, Solidus. "We believe JumpStart Foundry incorporates the best attributes of these predecessors but is also tailored to meet the unique needs of Nashville by leveraging our existing industries (i.e. healthcare, music, & transaction processing) to spur innovation."
"The start-up and tech communities are thriving in the Middle Tennessee region due to the growth in collaboration," said J. Tod Fetherling, President/CEO, Nashville Technology Council. "The recent energy and excitement can be tracked to the launch of the Entrepreneur Council, the new TNInvestco state-sponsored program, successful BarCamps/PodCamps and Digital Nashville. If we continue to work together to foster and grow entrepreneurs, it will transform the economic landscape for years to come."
Nashville is already known as Music City and the Silicon Valley of Healthcare. This microfund initiative, combined with the other programs designed to support entrepreneurial activities in town, provide Nashville with a unique opportunity to become known as one of the best start-up communities in the country. Another of JumpStart's founding members, Pinky Gonzales, summarized it best. "Nashville is absolutely on fire in the start-up and investment space. A potent combination of financing, mentorship and creative spirit seems to have coalesced in the last few years, resulting in numerous multi-million-dollar buy-outs and a wide range of new businesses getting off the ground. JumpStart Foundry will allow us to channel this energy and build our city into a world-class start-up community. It's an absolute thrill to participate in this process both as an entrepreneur and as an investor."
Nicholas Holland, another JumpStart Foundry founding member, described the fund's decision to focus part of its efforts on mobile applications. "According to Juniper Research, mobile application development is expected to be a $19 billion annual market in the next five years. Nashville has already shown creativity and intelligence in this area with launches like Local Eats, CMA, and my favorite, GPS Assassins. It is no coincidence that the first company to be funded by JumpStart Foundry is a startup focused on mobile financial applications."
For more information or to submit an application, www.JumpStartFoundry.com.
ABOUT JumpStart Foundry
JumpStart Foundry is a newly formed microfund, managed by a group of 20 individuals with extensive experience as entrepreneurs, software developers or early-stage investors. The mission of JumpStart Foundry is to select entrepreneurs with a solid business idea, match them with financial, business and technology mentors who will support the development of the company, and enable the entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of their business.
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W Squared is a JumpStart Foundry Partner and Casey Correnti, W Squared's Vice President of Business Development, is a JumpStart Foundry Founding Member.