Social Enterprise Demo Day

Social Enterprise Demo Day • REGISTER

Please join us for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s (EC) and the Center for Nonprofit Management’s (CNM) Social Enterprise Demo Day. For the past 14 weeks, 6 teams have gone through programming and mentorship created from the combination of the EC’s entrepreneurial expertise and CNM’s vast experience with companies pursuing social missions. 

The event is open to the public but prior registration is required (though registration is free). The event will start promptly at 4:30 PM. Our teams will pitch one-at-a-time until 5:50 PM, after which our guests are invited to stay and network with the teams over the food and drink we will provide until 7:00 PM. 

On Monday, April 14th, at the EC, each of these teams will give their final pitches at the EC. At the event we will have something for everyone: Our teams are a combination of nonprofit and for-profit ventures tackling causes from energy to homelessness. Some of our teams have been in business for a while and are trying to ensure their sustainability and other teams are creating something entirely new. Following is a brief description of the teams you will see:

The Contributor: The Contributor is the largest circulating street newspaper in the Western Hemisphere, giving a voice and job to hundreds of Nashville’s homeless.

Hope Beyond Hope: Dr. Bruce Wolf, founder of the well-known Dispensary of Hope, is launching a new social enterprise to increase transparency in healthcare and help the underinsured find affordable prescription drugs.

Internpreneur: Internpreneur is creating a new platform to help students find higher quality learning experiences in internship programs and to help employers provide such internships.

The Shae Foundation: Hollywood movie producer Terry Benedict has created The Shae Foundation to help nonprofits share their stories while helping the disadvantaged pursue their artistic passions.

Solar Site Designs: Solar Site Designs, winner of the Village Capital Social Enterprise Pitch Competition in Louisville and a finalist in the nationally-renowned CleanTech Forum held in Silicon Valley, has created a mobile application that makes it easier and more profitable for vendors to sell solar technologies that make our planet more sustainable.

The Experiential Institute: Founders Justin Kiersky and Phil Kazlauskas applied to our accelerator program and asked us if they were a social enterprise. They aren’t, but they still have an important story to tell.  In the process of finding their identity they’ve developed a powerful for-profit venture that will help Asian-born students struggling to overcome language and cultural barriers find more success in American institutions of higher education. While they aren’t a social enterprise, they are socially conscious venture with a lot of investor upside.