KEC’s 2023 Year in Review
2023 has been a BIG year for KEC We kicked off the year with a new team member, Kelsi Walker, who is our new Communications and Marketing Coordinator. We had another great What’s The Big Idea Pitch Competition with six highly engaged and dedicated teams. We celebrated 10 Years of KEC in April with a […]
Catherine Porth joins KEC Leadership
8.24.2021, Knoxville, TN: Local entrepreneur, research specialist and “Let Her Speak” platform founder, Catherine Porth, has been named Director of Insights and Development at the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC). With more than 12 years working in business consulting, sales development, corporate training and insights research, Porth takes on a full-time role as part of a […]
Made for Knoxville: Eugenia Almeida
Creator and Visionary: Meet Eugenia Almeida, Founder of A New Hue https://youtu.be/i5enpOULJMo Eugenia Almeida sparks joy. You can feel it when you’re around her, and you can hear it in her voice when she speaks about what it means to build a successful business, life, and community around her craft. Born and raised in Argentina, […]
Made for Knoxville: Tanika Harper
Maker and Change Maker: Meet Tanika Harper, Founder of Harper’s Naturals Tanika created an entire skin care line by hand just to keep her own skin healthy, and in the process realized that she could help others who wanted pure, chemical free, handcrafted products. But helping others didn’t stop with skin care. Tanika is a […]
Made for Knoxville: Brandon Bruce
Connector and Risk-taker: Meet Brandon Bruce, co-founder of Startup Knox and Cirrus Insight Brandon Bruce’s fascination with entrepreneurship began in high school. His journey has taken him through being an entrepreneur himself, to now acting as a community and ecosystem builder for the next generation. For Brandon, entrepreneurship is an opportunity to do a little […]
Made for Knoxville: Samantha Lane
Balance-seeker and Guide: Meet Samantha Lane, Founder of Origami Day Life is short, and Samantha Lane is determined to make the most of it – but not in the typical “always on” 24/7 culture that people like Steve Jobs made famous. After a life-changing surgery, Samantha Lane made the difficult decision to leave the corporate […]
Made for Knoxville: Marcus Hall
Style Icon and Craftsman: Meet Marcus Hall, Founder of Marc Nelson Denim. KEC is excited to celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth by sharing stories of innovation and inspiration from Black founders in our community, beginning with Marcus Hall. The love of making is woven through Marcus’ history. His family worked at the Levi’s factory on Cherry Street, only […]
Made for Knoxville: Tommy Nguyen
Problem Solver & Shepherd. Meet Tommy Nguyen – Co-founder of StoragePug. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Tommy to chat about his experience as an entrepreneur in Knoxville, and you can watch the full video below. Tommy started StoragePug to give small business owners a fighting chance, and ended up building a community […]
