From the press release:

Rather than work out of a coffee shop or a home office, now anyone in Knoxville can have an office environment to work in around the company of other creative entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals. The space also welcomes prospective investors to drop in and learn about angel investing and it strongly advocates “triple-bottom line entrepreneurship” and socially responsible business opportunities in the emerging green economy.

In a time where a place to work can be one of the most expensive parts of starting a new business, the Overground Model can be a huge asset to the entrepreneurship community in a city.

For more information on Knoxville Overgound visit knoxvilleoverground.com.

FastPitch has been put together by Rachel Qualls, Mark Krejci, and Lucas Parry. They have designed it as a series of 3 events:

PitchCamp is a 4 hour seminar on the art of the pitch. It costs $35 to attend and will take place on Friday Feb 6th, 2009.

OpenPitch is open for anyone to come and pitch their idea. It is free to PitchCamp graduates and $35 for everyone else. It will take place on february 27 and March 7th.

The best pitches are then invited to FastPitch where they will compete for the cash and the opportunity to pitch the Nashville Angel Group. The winner is selected by the audience, so if you don’t want to pitch you can help select the winner. Either way, mark March 31, 2009 on your calendars; it should be a great time.

Visit FastPitch Nashville to learn more and register.

My name is Jackson Miller (the only time I will ever self-link); I have signed on to be the catalyst for Tennessee Startups. My goals will be to write about what is going on in the TN startup community. The plan is for this to include highlights about local startups, announcements about events, as well as some posts of general interest to startup entrepreneurs. (read more about the SpringStage Startup Blog Network)

Tennessee is an interesting state in that it is divided into three regions:

1. East (Knoxville, Chattanooga, Oak Ridge) 
2. Middle (Nashville, Murfreesboro)
3. West (Memphis)

The 3 regions of Tennessee have a tendency to be somewhat isolated from each other. This is true politically and it seems to be true for startups as well. My hope is that Tennessee Startups can serve as a bridge to bring the regions of our state together.

Since I live in Nashville I have a tendency to know more about what is going on around here, but I will be doing my best to cover the entire state. I am also interested in people who might like to submit tips on what I should be covering. (Please send tips to jackson.h.miller at gmail).

Now that I have introduced myself I can start posting about the good stuff.