News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Crossville ranks with much larger, urban cities in the amount of seed money coming into the community, according to a recent report.
Seed money is money invested into start-up companies. Crossville Chamber of Commerce CEO Ethan Hadley said Crossville ranked alongside Los Angeles, The Bay Area, Boston and New York City in seed capital invested.
“Us being ranked with that group of larger cities is due to one start up and that’s Whisper Aero, and Whisper Aero went through a funding round that was significant enough for use to be compared to those larger metro areas,” Hadley said.
Hadley said he thinks ranking among those cities sends a message about Crossville and Tennessee when it comes to doing business. He said he believes this is just the start.
“It’s a very pleasant, eye-opening surprise,” Hadley said. “If you look at a list of those much larger metros and their ability to attract money and talent to see that we’re listed right there along side them, and we are doing great things here in Tennessee that are really leading what will be a global industry.”
Whisper Aero specializes in electric propulsion, the process of moving air to create power like in an aircraft engine. Hadley said ranking among those cities in start-up dollars brings attention to Crossville.
“If you think about a not-too-distant future where we’re going to have electric aircraft in the skies that’ll shuttle you back and forth between places. That only works if there’s a certain level of quiet,” Hadley said.
Their focus is on making that technology quieter. Start-up Whisper Aero came to Crossville in 2021.
“It draws a spotlight on to us as a transitional community, formerly rural community that is being compared to those larger metros including New York, D.C., Boston, etc,” Hadley said. “When people think of small town America, they don’t necessarily think of cutting edge or bleeding edge technology being developed there, we’re fortunate to have a company that’s doing just that.”
