Accelerator briefing

Representatives of the 3 regional business accelerators in Middle Tennessee will meet with entrepreneurs Wednesday. Lunch is free if you sign-up in time to get a seat. Read the details here.

Governor's all ears

Gov. Bill Haslam welcomes input, say his staff, on the performance Dashboard the Admistration recently launched online. Read about it and submit ideas.

TTDC update

Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC) may eventually need to look for private funding for its operations. Update here.

Innovation updates

State ECD's leadership has shifted for its INCITE co-investment and related programs. Tech2020 installed a new CEO. And, Nashville Business Incubation Center was more room, more tenants, more influence. Catchup on it here.

Hagerty's to-do's

Bill Hagerty, ECD commissioner under Gov. Bill Haslam, has a long and growing economic-development to-do list. Notes here.

Feds fund Haslam initiative

The U.S. Treasury came through with $29.7 million the Administration of Gov. Bill Haslam needs to breathe life into its INCITE innovation and economic development initiative, a cornerstone of the governor's Jobs4TN program. Details are here.

ORNL cleanup

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam expressed concern about federal funding for cleanups at ORNL. He's not convinced ORNL is getting its "fair share," he said. KNS here.

StartupTN: More will be revealed

The press conference and stakeholder briefing with Gov. Bill Haslam, SAm CEO Scott Case, ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty and EC and ST CEO Michael Burcham at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center produced a good ration of energy this morning. A brief update on the matter is here. Responses to an RFI, solicited from would-be accelerator grants applicants, is due back to ECD by July 15.

Haslam: Jobs are Job One

The Commercial Appeal's Rick Locker reports on Gov. Bill Haslam's agenda, following his first dance with the General Assembly. Read about it here. Other VNC coverage.

Startup Tennessee draws Gov. Haslam, Startup America CEO Case

Startup Tennessee's launch will be celebrated tomorrow in Nashville, with help from Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, Startup America CEO Scott Case, and others. It could be just the added ingredient the Tennessee entrepreneurial ecosystem has been needed. Time will tell. More here.

Haslam INCITE incites complaints

State Sen. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) and Nashville tax-revolter Ben Cunningham, speaking in this morning's Tennessean, express concerns regarding Gov. Bill Haslam's INCITE program, through which ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty hopes to get federal permission to use $30MM in federal funds to support co-investment in early-stage companies. If that permission isn't granted, the money might have to go to banks, instead. That, in turn, would eliminate one leg of the Haslam-Hagerty Incite program, and could jeopardize other parts of the plan, including the funding of incubators in some areas of the state. 'Could be coincidence, but McNally's concerns regarding transparency of the program could be partly a result of partly suppressed complaints in E.TN. about the fact no TNINvestco funds in that region were certified and little TNInvestco money has gone into firms in that territory. As we pointed-out in yesterday's NewsBits, The Knoxville News Sentinel opened further this can o' worms this weekend with a batch of stories. Also, as we reported May 23, Hagerty's agency rethought its release of TNInvestco investment-certification information and plans to release less info.

TN-N'ville Venture News

Our latest VentureNotes and NewsBits features include a couple dozen items on new ventures, a new Angel/VC fund, Venture INCITE, state and regional entrepreneurship and tech-transfer initiatives and more. Read it all here.

TN co-investments

'Less rivalry, more collaboration' might be a reasonable guess at the subtext of today's address by Gov. Bill Haslam, before an audience at the NEXT TN Conference, hosted by TTDC. The governor's INCITE innovation program includes state co-investments, more pressure on commercializing technologies, honors for entrepreneurs, more incubators statewide and more. Read our take, here.

Fassbender at TN ECD

Paul Fassbender, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN-Chattanooga) is now assistant commissioner of Economic and Community Development under Commissioner Bill Hagerty. Read about it here.

NewsBits, April 25, 2011

JumpStart's squadron of mentors.. Haslam-Hagerty prepare to unveil innovation strategy.. Blackstone Group foundation support NC entrepreneurs network and much more here.

Jobs4TN via Haslam-Hagerty

Jobs4TN, the economic-development plan crafted by ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty for Gov. Bill Haslam, was announced today in rough outline, including news of a 35% staff reduction at ECD and promise of a new senior leadership team for the agency. The release did not mention any logical ECD allies by name. As signalled earlier by both the governor and Hagerty, ECD's gameplan will rely heavily on leveraging existing sectoral strengths and regionally significant industrial bases, and will post basecamp liaisons across the state to help push urban and rural development, the latter being further boosted by the addition of a new senior post for rural development. No word yet on when details will be provided. Today's release is here.

Gov. Haslam supports Amazon deal

Despite controversy over sales-tax payments and economic-development incentives to Amazon for its Hamilton and Bradley County facilities, Gov. Bill Haslam accepted former Gov. Phil Bredesen's judgment. The TFP reports.

TN ECD 'matrix'

'Sounds as though Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty is creating an input-output model of sorts, to project the impact on employment from incentives used to lure businesses to come Tennessee, or to stay put. Details may be out later this week, the TFP reports.

10 TNINvestco's compliant

Gov. Bill Haslam's Department of Economic and Community Development issued data today certifying that each of the state's 10 TNInvestco funds were, based on data submitted, compliant with state law and regulation in executing their funding programs during year one of TNInvestco. ECD spokesman Mark Drury indicated this afternoon he was uncertain regarding the Haslam Administration's next step in evaluating the performance and value of the program. The ECD report is here. Other background info is here.

Humphrey reading Haslam's mail?

Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel provides detailed prognostication on the eve of Gov. Bill Haslam's first State of the State, looking ahead to the Administration's first budget submission. The KNS has it.