Knoxville is filled with organizations and people who want to help you take the next step in your entrepreneurial journey. The Knoxville Entrepreneur Center is a part of a vast ecosystem of support and we would love to help you get connected.
Knoxville Area Partners
The Knoxville Chamber is an economic prosperity organization located in Knoxville, Tennessee. The organization is committed to its mission of driving regional economic prosperity.
Its five-year strategic vision, Path to Prosperity, prioritizes the creation of a vibrant, innovative economic ecosystem for the entire Knoxville region that considers today’s realities while contemplating tomorrow’s aspirations.
Visit Knoxville’s mission is to accelerate sustainable economic growth and development by increasing visitor and convention/event business to our community. Visit Knoxville is proud to support community initiatives encompassing art and culture, history, entertainment and outdoor adventure to promote Knoxville regionally, nationally and internationally.
The SBDC is a network of centers, conveniently located in a community near you. Their consultants provide no-cost virtual and in-person business consulting, training, and resources to help for-profit businesses of any size start, grow, and sustain their business.
The Sky City Entrepreneur Center is dedicated to helping small business owners succeed and new businesses launch in Blount County. Located in downtown Maryville, Sky City is at the heart of our region’s growth, with easy access to all the industry of Blount County as well as Knoxville and Sevier County.
Ranked among the top CPA firms in the nation by USA Today, Forbes, and INSIDE Public Accounting, PYA is also a leader in the percentage of female ownership. We are a Top 15 auditor of the nation’s largest health systems and are consistently ranked as one of the country’s Top 20 healthcare consulting firms by Modern Healthcare.
Serving clients in all 50 states from our headquarters in Knoxville, as well as offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Kansas City, Nashville, and Tampa, PYA provides expertise in tax, audit and assurance, IT, and management consulting.
EO supports the whole entrepreneur in business and beyond because successful enterprises start with people. They connect entrepreneurs locally, then globally, encouraging members to bring their whole selves to a trusted community that creates growth and belonging for them and the people in their lives. This holistic approach includes our families and key executives because strong relationships and solid support systems are vital to any entrepreneur’s well-being.
Three Roots Capital is an innovative finance company that provides impact capital and assistance to job creating, place making companies, and projects.
Greater Sum Ventures is an entrepreneurial family office and business optimization consulting firm. We invest our own capital in middle market software and tech-enabled services companies.
With entrepreneurial roots and proven operational and investing experience, GSV works alongside select independent co-investing partners and other institutional managers to build platforms of technology companies that revolutionize the industries they serve.
The mission of the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville is to serve and support a diverse community of artists, arts organizations, and cultural institutions. The Alliance is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable nonprofit organization.
The Maker City is the greater Knoxville-area community of makers, artists, creatives, and small-scale manufacturers and supporting entities.
Led by the appointed Mayor’s Maker Council, we create collaborative partnerships, programming, and opportunities in support of Knoxville’s maker community.
Pellissippi State Community College provides a transformative environment fostering the academic, social, economic and cultural enrichment of the individual and the community. We are committed to student success in workforce training and certificate and degree programs.
Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 17 million entrepreneurs start, grow or successfully exit a business. SCORE’s 10,000 volunteers provide free, expert mentoring, resources and education in all 50 U.S. states and territories.
The Women, LLC of Knoxville is a group of six Black women who saw that there is a lack of capital and other economic resources available for Black business owners who want to expand and those beginning their journey to entrepreneurship but didn’t have access to funds to get started.
As the leading Latino-serving organization in East Tennessee, Centro exists to connect, celebrate, and elevate our community, and we envision an East Tennessee in which all Latino/a/e/x people can thrive culturally, educationally and economically. Our mission is to promote empowerment and civic participation through education, workforce development, youth and family engagement, and community-strengthening initiatives.
Designed originally as a coworking space, Aught was a vision based on the necessity of community. That community has flourished, and so has our ability to serve women leading and building businesses. Aught understands the unique challenges that women in business face, and we believe that support from other women on the same journey, and a community that gets you and your pursuit of anything at all is paramount in enjoying the work you do.
Founded in 1794, it is one of the nation’s oldest public universities and offers a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs across multiple disciplines. Known for its commitment to innovation and service, UTK boasts a diverse and dynamic community of students, faculty, and staff. The university is home to cutting-edge research initiatives, strong athletic programs, and iconic landmarks like Neyland Stadium and the Hill. With a focus on fostering academic excellence and community engagement, UTK prepares students to make a positive impact on the world.
AgLaunch is a national platform of innovative farmers from diverse farming operations that crowdsources due diligence, shares data, coordinates field trials, and provides investment capital to support agtech startup companies from idea-to-scale. AgLaunch-affiliated farmers own a portion of the agtech companies we work with. This model promotes equitable ownership within the value chain and ensures the technologies we help develop directly benefit the farmers who use them.
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Starting new energy-related technology companies can be challenging, and that’s one reason the number of energy startups has declined significantly over the past decade. Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program, is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, Building Technologies Office, Office of Electricity, Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, and the Tennessee Valley Authority that leverages Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s unique scientific resources and capabilities and connects the nation’s top innovators with experts, mentors, and networks in technology-related fields to take world-changing ideas from research and development to the marketplace.
Legacy Parks stewards natural and financial resources to create unique outdoor projects. They work collaboratively to preserve green space, expand parks, create trails, and increase access to our rivers. Since 2007, Legacy Parks has raised over $11 million for parks and open space, helped conserve 1,000 acres of forest and farmland, and added over 700 acres of parkland in Knox County.
The Knoxville Area Urban League, a civil rights, economic development and social service organization, came into existence in 1968 at the height of the civil rights movement to promote equal employment opportunities for African-Americans in Knoxville, Tennessee. Today, the organization is a non-profit, non-partisan, interracial community-based organization, serving a diverse client base in Knox, Blount and Anderson counties.
Real Good Kitchen Foundation’s mission is to increase food access, strengthen communities, and build equity through food entrepreneurship education, capacity building, and access to capital.
Dogwood Arts has a 67-year history of arts advocacy, environmental stewardship, and economic impact in East Tennessee. With the financial support of corporate sponsors, grant funding, local government investment, and private donors, we produce 20 year-round events and programs that help make Knoxville a great place to live, work and play.
LHS’s mission is to elevate ALL women’s voices, to facilitate deeper conversations, to inspire lasting change in our communities, and to build a stronger support system for more women to lead.
TVA Economic Development serves the seven states that make up the TVA service area—almost all of Tennessee and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky. Through our partnerships with other economic development organizations, we help foster capital investment and job growth in the area.
The Appalachian region is known for tough, blue-collar people who, for generations, have beaten the odds to overcome unforgiving landscapes and harsh conditions with grit, determination, and ingenuity. As it looks to reinvent itself for the next chapter of the region, Appalachia is collectively harnessing the power of the entrepreneurial mindset to reimagine the future while paying homage to its rich history. The new Appalachian economy is being built one business and one community at a time, and the Appalachian Investors Alliance (AIA) is here to act as a catalyst by coming alongside those who are actively working on the front lines of the Appalachian entrepreneurial revolution.
We’re a venture capital firm based in Knoxville with a focus on early stage startups in Tennessee, the Southeast, and Appalachia.
We aim to invest in exceptional founders in a traditionally overlooked region where our capital and connections can make a big impact.
Launch Tennessee is a 501c3 that supports the startup ecosystem through capital, connections and commercialization. As a public-private partnership, they are uniquely positioned to provide direct investment, while also supporting collaboration among founders, investors, researchers, the private sector and government.
Pathway Lending provides flexible lending solutions and educational resources to empower you in developing and growing your business, affordable housing, and sustainable initiatives—building a stronger Tennessee through economic opportunity.
At the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, they’re committed to improving the world. Big Orange, Big Ideas is a slogan they hear often at Tennessee. At Haslam, they take those words a step further, delivering big results by producing better, more prepared students and impactful, interdisciplinary research. Their students and faculty create the change that changes our world for the better.
Meritus is a Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC), formed in response to the creation of the Rural Business Investment Program (RBIP) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2002. The RBIP was established to promote the establishment of professionally-managed venture capital funds in regions of the country that are not traditionally targeted by venture capital funds. Specifically, the mission of the RBIP is to promote economic development and the creation of wealth and job opportunities in rural areas of the United States.
Community Equity Partners is a syndicate of investor groups and venture funds. We have gathered hundreds of great minds, subject matter experts, successful entrepreneurs, and venture-style investors from the Southeast and beyond who share diligence, expertise, experience, connections and industry insight on ventures to identify opportunities. We are here to help grow the next cohort of innovative solutions.
The Knoxville Technology Council (KTech) is an industry-led and membership-driven organization. Our members are companies and organizations across all industry sectors that have technology professionals located in the Greater Knoxville region or that do business here.
TAEBC champions advanced energy as a job creation and economic development strategy. We educate public officials and business leaders about Tennessee’s advanced energy assets, establish strategic partnerships to connect assets with opportunities, and inform policy that expands and strengthens the industry.
The University of Tennessee Research Park at Cherokee Farm is located just across the Tennessee River from UT’s flagship campus in Knoxville. We offer an ideal location for companies and entrepreneurs to collaborate with the talent at UT, and we provide the right connections to foster success. Contact us today to learn more about our facilities, tools and services.
The Spark Innovation Center is the UT Research Park’s focus on entrepreneurship development and commercialization of regional technology-based startup companies. Knoxville was recently rated as the #16 cleantech hub in the country according to Saordah Enterprise Partners, and Spark is a significant contributor to that effort.
