Come On Nashville, Let’s Do Better
I just read an article in the Nashville Business Journal about some ambiguous program filed under the keyword “entrepreneur”1. Read Chamber wants to lure tech start-ups to see what I mean.
First off, I can’t even tell what the article is about. Is it about some Chamber initiative? Is it about the Accelerator2 program at Owen? Is it about the Virtual Entrepreneurship Center they are teaming up to create? There is a sentence about all three, but no substance. Let alone any inclination of how any of this is designed to lure tech startups3 to Nashville. However, it did pique my interest enough to go search4 the internets for more information.
Luckily, the NBJ was scooped by Milt Capps5 8 months ago on Venture Nashville (link to Milt’s article). Milt actually has some details about what the Virtual Entrepreneurship Center is or will be. By “details” I mean that he has some quotes from people responsible. However, the lack of substance in their quotes leads me to the conclusion that a Virtual Entrepreneurship Center sponsored by a local Chamber of Commerce is not only a complete waste of resources, but also a solid step towards the continued mediocrity of Nashville as a location for tech startups.
Why is a Virtual Entrepreneurship Center a complete waste of time and money? The last thing people creating startups need is more web resources. Every kind of resource you can put on a website for entrepreneurs is already on the web. There are already some exceptional resources online for entrepreneurs. To add insult to injury, an entrepreneur who live in Nashville runs exactly that kind of resource. It is SmallBusiness.com and is run by Rex Hammock (and that URL is hard to beat).
Maybe I am wrong. Maybe they are creating something unique that is specific to Nashville and will eliminate a barrier that local startups have been experiencing. So, let’s look at the quotes and see what they have to say:
First up, Janet Miller the Chief Economic Development and Market Officer for the Nashville Chamber of Commerce:
“Our knowledge and attention to the needs of existing and future businesses, combined with the creativity of these students will surely lead to an exciting opportunity for Nashville, especially when it comes to supporting technology start-ups”
Oh, ok, so they know some stuff we don’t and by combining that with creativity (which I guess is where the entrepreneurs come in) then an exciting opportunity will magically appear. Surely.
Maybe she didn’t convince me, but I am sure Bobby Frist (who I think is really smart guy and is definitely a successful entrepreneur) will be able to explain the value to the entrepreneurs:
“I believe the health of this region’s economy begins with a strong entrepreneurial culture, and the creation of the Virtual Entrepreneur Resource Center will further develop that culture in new and important ways.”
Hrm. Maybe he was having an off day. In case you aren’t seeing a pattern here, Frist’s co-chair gave an equally fluffy quote:
“Nashville is full of smart, creative, independent people, and this Web-based Resource Center will help them achieve their goals as entrepreneurs.”
Here, let me try: By exploring synergies between the creative spirit of Music City entrepreneurs and the more than 8,000 years of expertise of our committee we will gain a better understanding for exactly how to provide resources to people in less creative and experienced areas like Alabama.
Now, I know I am being harsh. I have been a very vocal supporter and participant in the growing community of tech startups in Nashville. I would love for the Chamber of Commerce to participate in a meaningful way, but this isn’t it. I am sure some of the 82 committee members (who I think have great intentions), must have been frustrated with such a neutered and meaningless outcome. It must have taken a lot of time for a committee of 82 to come up with an idea this lame. I think the quotes above show that they aren’t very excited about it.
I hate to be critical of what I think are good intentions. It is going to take the collaboration of the interested groups in order to take Nashville to the next level (and this is currently happening with the Nashville Technology Council and the BarCamp / geek / etc camp). The reason I am writing this is that I think we need to praise innovation and risk-taking and condemn mediocrity in order to raise the bar for Nashville. The Virtual Entrepreneurship Resource Center reeks of mediocrity to me.
1 – The word “entrepreneur” is becoming meaningless.
2 – The Accelerator program at Owen Business School looks cool. I briefly toys with attending this summer.
3 – I wouldn’t be surprised if the Nashville Business Journal is technically correct to hyphenate start-ups, but those of us who work in them don’t.
4 – I searched with Google and Bing. The best resource (Milt’s article) was #1 on Bing and #4 on Google.
5 – Hey, Milt, how about that article on gpsAssassins? 
1. I'd be willing to bet the quotes you are critiquing were not actually uttered by the people to whom they are attributed, but were instead written by a third party as part of a press release.
2. I thought NTC was launching the Virtual Entrepreneurship Center as a precursor to an Entrepreneurship Program and possibly a physical center.
It wouldn't surprise me if the quotes I lifted from Venture Nashville were actually spoken. Besides, if they crafted those quotes in a press release, isn't that all the more reason there should be some substance?
I am interested to see if something happens with the Entrepreneurship Program or a physical center. Either way, a website seems pretty useless, so why waste the time? Why not just start with something that would actually help the entrepreneurs?
Jackson, Tod here. Can you come by Friday or one day next week? I would love to share the plans with you and get your feedback. The virtual center is Phase I. The full plan does include a center and hopefully co-working types of programs as well. However, we need to get some initial momentum. Most of the quotes and content are from October. We have done some interesting work with Mark, Clint, Marcus, Nick, Greg B, Chris S and others to put more meat on the bones. I agree there are a ton of good resources on the web, but it still requires some vetting.
Re footnote #2: My copy of the Associated Press Stylebook reads:
There is a lot of information on the web, however its of various degrees of usefulness and credibility.
It is the case that it would only take about 5 to 20 hours to put together a resource of links for the most important issues in business (many of which will probably be available via the Small Business Administration or SCORE or a blog which covers entrepreneurship)
I think having a process or model is still important for business. That can be time saving. And having a personal advisor who has been there can be helpful as well.
Finally, I think having a more robust community in nashville around technology can be helpful both for the long term prospects for Nashville and Tennessee as a whole.