DURING their 90-minute quarterly meeting this morning, the board of directors of Tennessee Technology Development Corporation dba Launch Tennessee received from CEO Lindsey Cox and her staff a detailed presentation covering initiatives, finances and other issues for discussion, which was followed by an executive session closed to the public.

Karla Valdivieso

Guest speakers included Ian Villa of Crossville, Tenn-based Whisper Aero; and, Karla Valdivieso of Chattanooga-based Shappi.

Two years ago, Shappi moved from San Diego to Chattanooga, a city long home to trucking, logistics and related companies.

Six-year-old Shappi operates a digital "travelogistics" marketplace for home delivery of goods purchased in the U.S. to individual consumers in Ecuador.

The early-growth-stage company has raised at least $5MM since inception, from investors including not only Launch Tennessee, but also Westbound Equity Partners, Sixers Innovation Lab, Brickyard Capital, Ganas Ventures, Render Capital, Sweater Ventures, Concrete Rose Capital, BAMco Enterprises and Cashmere Fund.

Ian Villa

A very different sort of venture, Whisper Aero has raised over $51MM since it launched into its mission to deliver "cleaner, quieter, more efficient thrust" for drones, jets and other applications.

It has nearly 20 investors, including Menlo Ventures, EVE Atlas, Capricorn's Technology Impact Fund, Kindred Ventures, Abstract Ventures, 53 Stations, Connor Capital, Moving Capital, AeroX Ventures, Cosmos Ventures, Linse Capital and TTDC-LaunchTN (2022).

Whisper has 73 FTE and contractors, 27 filed and issued patents, 56K sq. ft. of testing and manufacturing space, and four propulsor programs, Villa said today. As previously reported, Whisper's Co-founder and CEO is Mark Moore PhD.

Whisper COO Villa emphasized the company's determination to work with a host of education, business, institutional, government and other STEM-oriented allies to help ensure that "top student talent in Tennessee" -- perhaps beginning in middle school, through postgraduate programs -- takes opportunities to prepare for and successfully pursue STEM-related careers in Tennessee, rather than migrating elsewhere for rewards. Whisper deck portion.

Among other points, Villa noted that Whisper Aero is reaching out to contacts with U.S. Army programs at Fort Campbell, near Nashville, as well as working with Tennessee Technological University and other allies with interest in creating an advanced aviation technology center.

Villa further emphasized the importance of creating a broad alliance or ecosystem to nourish, sustain and expand Tennessee connections with allies regionally, nationally and globally. His comments seemed to reflect deep personal interest in achieving such ends.

Stuart McWhorter

LaunchTN Chairman Stuart McWhorter, who doubles-in-brass as commissioner of Tennessee Economic and Community Development, said that Whisper executives have "really paved the way" in demonstrating how all stakeholders can collaborate, adding that he thinks LaunchTN's role in such matters will grow and that all such efforts could lead to further legislative support for such commercialization.

LaunchTN Vice Chairman Bruce Doeg added that he considers Whisper a "phenomenal" example of the impact that innovative and entrepreneurial companies can have as Tennessee seeks-out "our place" in the emerging world economy.

A few days ahead of today's meeting, CEO Cox provided attendees a detailed presentation deck as it appeared Jan. 13.

The deck included a comprehensive report by CIO Eller Kelliher on LaunchTN's progress toward achieving its goal of 10X leverage on its roughly $70MM equity portion of the SSBCI 2.0 funding, which it successfully pursued in harness with TN ECD -- with ECD-proper the overall grantee and directly responsible for the credit side of the combined $117MM state allocation.

By this morning, the original technology commercialization slide in the deck was significantly expanded, so that updated page is included here. The tech-commercialization initiative is managed by Chuck Layne, MCRP.

LaunchTN, a 501c3 nonprofit, was legislated into being by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1997, was organized in 1998 and had its first full year of operations in 1999.

Note: A copy of the Minutes of the previous October 2024 meeting of the board of directors is here. VNC

. last edited 16 January 2025 1534