Southern Startup Report: Accelerators, Acquisitions and Google Fiber
By Alec Cole, LookFar
Startup Southerner is proud to present the Startup Southern Report in partnership with LookFar, a New Orleans software development studiocommitted to supporting and accelerating technological innovation in the greater Southeast. The Southern Startup Report is a twice-monthly, curated newsletter covering the latest startup happenings in the American Southeast. Subscribe here if you like what you’re reading.

Southern Startup News for August 11 — August 25:
New Orleans, LA — $50K up for grabs in 2017 BioChallenge Startup Competition — The New Orleans BioInnovation Center is currently accepting applications for the annual BioChallenge, a pitch competition for life sciences startups from across Louisiana, and more than $50K in cash and investment prizes are up for grabs. NOBIC has been infusing the local biotech scene with big money over the last few years via their New Orleans BioFund, investing $3 million in 15 local businesses and working with startups to raise $93 million in funding. It will be exciting to see how this year’s pitch competition shakes out.
In other NOLA news, New Orleans-based founders have a little extra time to apply for Idea Village’s IDEAx accelerator program. Applications for the program, which offers hands-on time with Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Sloan Miller, a creative and technology industry veteran with a passion for community engagement, and Eugene Brill, a Business Strategy Advisor with more than 20 years of experience in business plan development, have been extended to close on 11:59 pm CT on Friday, September 1. Interested entrepreneurs should read the FAQ found here.
Birmingham, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham launches new commercialization accelerator — UAB gave this year’s Birmingham Innovation Week a little extra spice by announcing a brand new commercialization accelerator program. The new accelerator (which is currently called just “the commercialization accelerator” — I will of course let you know if they pick a cooler name for it) represents a new level of seriousness for UAB’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship department. At the heart of the program is a new physical space — open as of Monday — where teams can focus on researching and commercializing new tech.
Despite the lack of a sexy name for the accelerator, this is major news. UAB is huge — we’re talking about Alabama’s largest private employer here, the only R1 research university in the state, and a legitimate IP powerhouse. The fact that they’re working to become more entrepreneur-friendly is a big bonus to the rapidly growing Birmingham startup ecosystem. While companies like Shipt have already made their mark in the city, UAB’s involvement is Birmingham’s quickest path to relevance in life sciences and other STEM industries. We currently have very little information about what school support for accelerator companies looks like. That said, we’re keeping an eye out, and will update you if anything new comes across the wire.
Atlanta, GA — Engage announces inaugural cohort — It’s here! After all the wait, and no small amount of hype from my end, Atlanta’s Engage program is finally firing up. If you’re new to this story, Engage is a gigantic, collaborative fund and accelerator. Taken at face value, it’s already a pretty serious piece of work; participating companies receive $75K in seed funding and three months of mentorship. Of course, that’s not too far outside of what a lot of modern accelerators offer, and their $15M fund is relatively puny compared to some; however, peek behind the curtain at who chipped into that $15M and you’ll understand why I keep such a weather eye on Engage.
Engage’s corporate sponsors list is just silly. It consists of ten Fortune 1000 companies, ranging from UPS to Cox Enterprises to The Home Depot. In short, regardless of vertical, participating startups have a direct line to a banner partner with existing skin in their venture. This diversity is borne out in Engage’s first cohort. The 8-company class includes Durham’s Bee Downtown, which focuses on innovative approaches to revitalizing bee populations, Atlanta-based customer engagement tool Gauge Insights, and Chattanooga logistics startup TransRisk.
Louisville, KY — City wins court battle against AT&T, paving way for Google Fiber — Another Southern city is well on its way to firing up Google Fiber. Louisville’s long-running effort to lure the ultra-fast network to their city was previously imperiled by a lawsuit from AT&T, but a District County Judge has tossed the case, and Fiber’s back on the menu. The case revolved around so-called “one-touch” regulationslobbied for by Google and passed by Louisville and other Southern cities. One-touch essentially allows networks to rearrange competitor’s equipment on city utility poles, bypassing an otherwise painful process. Louisville’s win places them well on the way to getting an active Google Fiber network.

Beyond being a win for Louisville, the case may establish precedence for other Southern cities. Nashville is currently embroiled in a parallel court case, one likely to be influenced by the outcome in Louisville. Even beyond that, Google Fiber is active throughout the Southeast, and it’s likely that more regional cities will have to undergo similar fights on the road to fiber outside the limits of the big ISPs.
Charleston, SC — Good Done Great acquired by YourCause, LLC — The terms haven’t been disclosed (are they ever?) but we’re looking at a major acquisition from the Silicon Harbor. Philanthropy platform Good Done Great has been a longtime Charleston standout — you may remember them taking home top honors at Dig South back in 2016 — they work with a customer base of 60 companies and over 2M employees, and have picked up over $1M in funding over the past couple years. Their new buyer, YourCause, works to help employers connect employees to causes they care about. They’re a major player in the ever-growing field of Corporate Social Responsibility, and a natural acquirer for GDG.
Del Ray, FL — Tech legend Jim Clark launches CommandScape in South Florida — There’s something interesting going down in Del Ray. Jim Clark, founder of Netscape and one of the fathers of the 90’s internet boom, has reemerged and has based his newest venture in the Florida city. Clark is a quasi-mythical figure in the pantheon of serial entrepreneurs. Besides Netscape, he also had a hand in starting early visual effects giant Silicon Graphics and health software company Healtheon, which would go on to merge with WebMD. In short, he’s got a solid track record. His newest venture, CommandScape will focus on building management software for high-end properties. It’s a dark horse at this stage, but Clark’s involvement is more than enough to make it worth watching.
Recent Rounds:
Aventura, FL — Boatsetter — $4.75M
Louisville, KY — Exscien — $3.7M Grant
Miami, FL — Dvdendo — $1.5M Seed
Upcoming Events:
August 27 — Montgomery, AL — innovateAFITC
August 29— Nashville, TN — TechInclusion Forum
September 7 — New Orleans, LA — From Big Idea to Big Acquisition
September 8 — Atlanta, GA — Atlanta Braves Hackathon
September 8 — Memphis, TN — HACKmemphis 2017
LookFar Updates:
Ada Lovelace Award: Call for Nominations — It’s that time of the year again! The 2017 Ada Lovelace Awards are now open for nominations. We’ve expanded our search for outstanding women in tech to cover four distinct categories and the entirety of the Gulf South. If you know a colleague, friend, or fellow techie who deserves an Ada, let us know.
On the Blog — An Introduction to Unlicensed Spectrum — LookFar dev Ken Gaulter walks you through the basics of unlicensed spectrum. What is unlicensed spectrum you ask? Well, there’s a reason we had Ken write it up — U/S represents a fertile field for tech entrepreneurs, and we’ve got the primer.
