State investment firm spreads dough afar

The program has helped provide seed funds for near 40 Tennessee businesses judged to offer the greatest growth potential. TNInvestco, started in accordance with the administration of former Gov. Phil Bredesen, is being reviewed by the new administration of Gov. Bill Haslam as part of a streamlining effort of most state agencies.

During a meeting in Chattanooga this week of the Tennessee Innovation Development Corp., the new commissioner of Economic and Community Development for Tennessee - Bill Hagerty - said his office wants to promote new innovation startup businesses, however his office must share in the overall 2.5 percent reduction in state spending. Hagerty said investments in venture capital and innovative startup businesses "can be difficult for a politician because the political cycles tend to be much shorter than the return on investments you see from these type of projects."

Ken McElrath, another Chattanooga entrepreneur, invented a product called Skoodat that brings cloud computing to K-12 educators, a radical departure from current, silo-based storage systems that educators use.

Marcum said other state investment programs, including the Rural Seed Fund and the Research Maturation Fund, can help provide smaller grants to entrepreneurs with promising ideas.

But Chattanooga-based SecureWaters, which developed the AquaSentinel water sensor with research from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said they were eager for TNInvestco funding since the program was announced, according to company finance director Robert Clark.

Investment from TNInvestco

"An investment from TNInvestco would go a long way toward getting us past this stage, and keeping this business in Tennessee," he said.

Ellis Smith joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press in January 2010 as a business reporter. His beat includes the flooring industry, Chattem, Unum, Krystal, the automobile market, real estate and research. Ellis is from Marietta, Ga., and has a bachelor's degree in mass communication at the University of West Georgia. He earlier worked at UTV-13 News, Carrollton, Ga., as a producer; at the The West Georgian, Carrollton, Ga., as editor; and at the Times-Georgian, Carrollton, ...