Blog: City Blog

Got an Entrepreneurial Pitch for a New East Knoxville Business? Contest Offers $10,000 Prizes

Know exactly what the East Knoxville business community needs and how you can do your part in triggering a growth spurt? Are you an entrepreneur who could put a $10,000 prize to good use to make your business idea a reality?

If so, submit your idea and join the Paradigm Challenge, a place-based, industry-specific ideation pitch competition that challenges entrepreneurs to solve business and economic growth challenges facing commercial corridors in East Knoxville - along Magnolia Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue or Cherry Street, for example - or in neighborhoods such as Burlington or Five Points.

Health care, retail/light manufacturing and technology are targeted industry sectors, and there will be one winner selected in each targeted sector. Winners will receive $10,000 in monetary prizes and pro bono professional services through the Knoxville Business Support Network. Winners must have the financial capacity and resources to invest in their business idea.

Anyone residing in Knox County can submit a pitch idea. The deadline is Dec. 30, 2016.

Applications can be found at www.thekaul.org.

The top 25 applications submitted will be narrowed down to 10 finalists, and those applicants will be invited to pitch their ideas on Pitch Day - Saturday, June 17, 2017.

CO.STARTERS, a business development program, and the Knoxville Chamber's Propel program are hosting the Paradigm Challenge, and the Knoxville Area Urban League is a lead partner. Other groups promoting the challenge are the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, and Greater Knoxville SCORE Chapter.

"The $10,000 is the carrot and incentive to get as many good ideas as possible. We'll certainly use this oportunity to get behind the three best ideas and help launch these new businesses," said Terrence Carter, the Urban League's Director of Economic and Business Development.

"There's actually a lot more of an upside to it than that. The Paradigm Challenge will be a catalyst for economic growth through new business development in East Knoxville. We hope there will be another half-dozen entrepreneurs who start successful new businesses because of this competition and the momentum it generates. If this Paradigm Challenge is successful, this will be a model that we can use in other communities in Knoxville in need of new businesses, new jobs, and goods and services."

For more details, please contact Carter at 865-524-5511, or contact the staff at the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, 282-4322.

Posted by evreeland On 06 December, 2016 at 4:31 PM