ScaleUp Nashville www.scaleupnashville.com is accepting applications until December 4 for the first cohort of small business owners. In September, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce was awarded a $218,000 contract through the Small Business Administration for the ScaleUp America program. One of only seven cities selected this year, the Nashville Metro Area has over 37,00 small businesses. These businesses have completed the start-up phase, but are frequently too small to access new support services and resources. Businesses in underserved communities can be particularly locked out of larger networks.
In order to provide support to these small businesses, ScaleUp Nashville provides two cohorts of small business owners each year with a community of other leaders that will help spark and direct growth. Each cohort participates in 12 weeks of classes, an analysis of the company’s finances, mentoring, area-specific focus groups, networking with and connections to local business leaders, and membership to the Refinery and Entrepreneur Center.
Program partners Entrepreneur Center, Pathway Lending, and Refinery will help shape and guide participating businesses’ growth. As more partners join, the network of resources expands. The first group of participants will help shape the program long term, as it grows into a community of business leaders and a symbol of growth.
This application cycle likely also will have the lowest number of applications as word has just started to get out, so please encourage likely candidates to submit their applications!