Nutraceutical discovers N'ville

Nutraceutical Discoveries, which just relo'd from Knoxville to Nashville, addresses the growing obesity dilemma with money from TNInvestco's Limestone Fund and Tennessee Community Ventures Fund, has named Douglas Grindstaff II its CEO. Earlier VNC coverage of this developing startup.

NewsBits, March 7, 2011

Hopes had grown we might land TyraTech, a VU portfolio company, but it's going elsewhere.. But, there's more encouraging news out of Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga.. Plus, a new PodCamp and an Oak Ridge NL tech-investment forum debuts.. read about it here.

Brewer reports TNInvestco concerns of TTDC staff

Tennessee Center for Policy Research Executive Director Clint Brewer reports on the fruits of his recent FOIA request for TNInvestco-related documents on-file at Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC). Some of the documents, as described by Brewer, suggest early concern by some TTDC staff regarding the need for a body independent of ECD-Revenue to select TNInvestco winners. Brewer also says the documents he obtained suggest tensions between ECD officials and TTDC leadership. Brewer's report, apparently funded by TCPR, is here.

TCPR weighs-in on TNInvestco

Tennessee Center for Policy Research Interim Executive Director Clint Brewer (left), formerly editor of The City Paper in Nashville and a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, weighed-in Friday on what he characterizes as the State's efforts to maintain "secrecy" around the TNInvestco program, rather than simply protect the confidentiality of corporate and state information the confidentiality of which they consider crucial to state economic development efforts. Last August, Brewer also raised the spectre of inappropriate insurance-industry ties among some TNInvestco legislative sponsors. Full VNC coverage of TNInvestco here.

TNInvestco stamps entry from ConduIT, Addison execs

[Corrected 10:38 a.m.] ConduIT Corporation Chairman Ray Capp, a former president of Nashville Technology Council and a veteran of Ingram, got his ticket punched today by TNInvestco, when his StarTN Fund LLC application was accepted. The letter includes reference to Pat Shepherd, chief administrative officer of Avondale Partners here, but we were informed after publication of our original post that Shepherd is not a principal in StarTN and is only serving as a member of Capp's new entity's investment committee, partly because Shepherd is a member of the board of ConduIT Corp. ConduIT is a seed-stage incubator, originally with ties to Vanderbilt. As previously reported here, Addison Capital got a green light, so far, also, with its TCB Early Stage B LLC now in the hopper. Stuart Brunson also confirmed to VNC this morning he got a TNInvestco message of acceptance for his Pointer Capital Partners Rural TNInvesto Fund, LLC. The State's page is here. Previous VNC Blog posts here and VNC TNInvestco stories here.

TNInvestco accepts Addison app

[5:45 p.m.] At this hour, the rumor persists that there were 25 TNInvestco applicants, but only 22 have been posted. However, VNC just received confirmation from Andrew Forsdick, a former Coopers & Lybrand manager who is now general partner with Addison Capital Advisors, that he received an e-mail today from TNInvestco staff saying that Addison's app has been approved. Addison Capital is backed by J.T. Novarese, a well known Memphis businessman whose family owned Pop Tunes, which was the oldest retail music distributorship in the U.S., but was sold to Nashville's Music City Record Distributors, in 2001. Addison Capital has investments in Park Media (digital signage), Telco Television (content aggregation for cable and IPTV), VO2 Networks (VOIP phones and related), and Energy Savings, which makes energy-saving products for HVAC and auto applications. A second supposed applicant is Pointer Capital Partners Rural TNInvestco Fund LLC, which is directed by former Bredesen Administration Deputy Governor Stuart Brunson. VNC has not determined whether or not Brunson's firm is linked to Pointer Capital LLC, based in Atlanta. Here's the State's official TNInvestco list. Here are links to search the VNC blog and VNC news site for related stories. As noted, there may also be a 25th approved application, but no word on when those two or more additional shoes might drop.