Story leads

By the numbers

The largest accelerator intake in our 16 years. Three concurrent 12-week programs plus PreFlight, our idea-stage track, September through November 2026. Counts as of September 1, 2026.

TakeOff is large enough this fall that it runs in morning and afternoon sessions. Self-reported at application, cohort-wide aggregates only: $11.3M in investor capital already raised, $7.0M of founders' own cash invested, $4.2M in current annual revenue. Project Healthcare draws companies from across the country, including New York, Colorado, Arizona, California, and Puerto Rico.

• TakeOff cohort directory
• InFlight cohort directory
• Project Healthcare cohort directory

Each directory is searchable with industry and stage filters, and every filtered view produces a shareable link. For the back catalog, our founder directory covers the past four published cohorts if you want to dig into who came through before this one.

Impact Grant finalists: 16 founders pitch for $40,000

Sixteen Fall 2026 founders will pitch live for $40,000 in non-dilutive funding at Winter 2026 Nashville Entrepreneur Day, December 3 at 1:00 PM at GEODIS Park. Each track splits $20,000 among its winners. Finalists heard the news in class on October 26. For interviews with any finalist, email Rob.

Finalists hear the news in TakeOff class, October 26. From left: Vincent Hall and Sophia Anderson, DECRĒ Training; Kim Richardson, CSH-HUB; Kay Brown, BuyUnrepped. Photos available on request.

What our founders did this fall

Milestones reported by founders in our programs, as of late October 2026. Any of them can be a story; we will make the intro.

• Mycel Medical Project HealthcareWent from a letter of intent to a signed contract and first statement of work with a national surgery center operator that runs more than 100 centers, all during the fall cohort.
• CareHome Technologies Project HealthcareLaunched its first paid pilot in October.
• CompendiRx Project HealthcareSigned its first customer: a rural primary care clinic serving about 3,500 patients.
• MindWave Medical Project HealthcareAccepted into the FDA's Safer Technologies Program; second patent approved.
• Childfree Trust Project HealthcareReceived an SBIR Phase I award from the National Institute on Aging and won Best Trust at the Wealth Management Industry Awards.
• Seek Health Project HealthcareEarned special recognition at an Oxford pitch competition. The company reports an 89% drop in missed patient handoffs in early clinical validation.
• Healing Innovations Project HealthcareSays rehab patients have now taken more than 22 million steps on its gait-training device; added five full-time jobs this quarter.
• Aries Fraud Solutions Project FinTech alumLon Varns' company won Best in Show at Fintech Connect and the People's Choice Award at America's Credit Unions.
• Mangrove AI Project FinTech alumDavid Buttrey's company was one of 15 chosen from 500 applicants for SF Startup Labs.
• The Flavorsmith InFlight alumVasisht Ramasubramanian's company won a 2026 Startup CPG Shelfie Award and is now in about 475 Sprouts Farmers Market stores. USA Today featured him earlier this year.
• JHR Photography InFlightJayson Rivas opened a new 1,500-square-foot creative studio in Clarksville on October 9.
• LearnKairo TakeOffElizabeth Keleshian opened paid enrollment. Three of her first four pilot families found learning gaps they didn't know existed.

Twelve leads we would chase

Picked from the 125 for the story, not the logo. Every lead is drawn from what founders told us in their own program applications. Founders agree at onboarding to be featured; details are self-reported, so confirm specifics with the founder before publication. We will make the intro same-day: email Rob.

The 2026 NEXT Awards: results

More than 630 people filled the Schermerhorn Symphony Center for our annual celebration of Nashville entrepreneurship. Mayor Freddie O'Connell spoke. Twelve awards were given and three founding teams entered the Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame. Every winner below is available for interviews: email Rob.

Hall of Fame, class of 2026: Robert A. McCabe Jr. and Terry Turner (Pinnacle Financial Partners), Max and Ben Goldberg (Strategic Hospitality, whose Bastion, The Catbird Seat, and Locust hold Tennessee's only Michelin stars), and Don and Tracy Hardin (Don Hardin Group, builders of Music City Center and the National Museum of African American Music).

• Full recap with winner quotes and photos
• NEXT Awards page: winners grid, backstage interviews, Hall of Fame tributes, galleries

Nominations and applications for the 2027 NEXT Awards are already open on the NEXT Awards page.

About Nashville Entrepreneur Center

Founded in 2010; 16 years old this November. A nonprofit that helps any entrepreneur who wants to grow, at any stage and in any industry, from first idea to exit.

• 325+ members in a community-based membership model
• Roughly 200 volunteer mentors with subject-matter and industry expertise, at the ready for any member
• Weekly events, hosted and partnered, social and educational
• Four accelerators: PreFlight is for idea-stage founders, before a product exists. TakeOff is for founders with a working product and early customers, building the go-to-market engine. InFlight is for growth-stage companies scaling revenue, operations, and team. Project Healthcare runs alongside all three at every stage, for founders building in healthcare; most of its companies are not based in Nashville.
• Prepare for Landing, launched as a pilot in October 2026: a new program on how to exit your business well. It covers the financial work of knowing your number, and the harder question of who you are after the sale. It exists because founders who came through our doors in 2010 are now fielding offers.

"If you don't want to grow, then we probably don't have anything for you." Sam Davidson, CEO

On the calendar