News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville Biz Foundry celebrated the expansion of its Cedar Avenue location at a Monday night event.
Vice President Tiffany Anton said the process to expand has been some two years in the making. She said the expansion doubles the size of the facility, including eight more private offices, two small conference rooms, and two more workspaces.
“COVID definitely offered us a space for people who work from home or who don’t have an office space to go into,” Anton said. “So we offer that service to people. So that was a huge help to us, alternative ways of working that’s been a huge thing for us. But then also on the entrepreneurial side of things, we’re here to help small businesses do what they need to do.”
Anton said that they serve about 30 to 40 businesses monthly. She said that they also offer entrepreneurial coaching or assistance to small businesses to manifest business ideas.
Board Chair Ray Mays said that the purpose of the Foundry is to help small businesses launch their enterprises successfully. He said that those interested can go to the Biz Foundry’s website to find out which avenue they’d like to learn more about.
“What I tell people is that I want to cut off about five years off their journey,” Mays said. “So we take people who are interested in starting a business and go through the foundation stuff. You know what’s a corporation, what’s an LLC, what does an accountant do, how do you work with a bank. All of those things that take your ideas and turn them into a real business (…) There’s a whole world for things behind, ‘Hey I’ve got this cool idea.’ So we’ve got boot camps that we offer, we introduce people to attorneys, to accountants, how do you fill out a loan, rural development.”
Mays said that the Biz Foundry also operates in McMinnville.
