Debbie Gordon, founder and CEO, Cloud Range Cyber LLC
Martin B. Cherry
Companies that will test your software or your defenses against cyberattacks are two of the five Nashville-area businesses selected to pitch at one of the Southeast's top technology and investor conferences.
The quintet is set to address the crowd at Venture Atlanta at the end of September. The three-day event attracts more than 1,300 attendees and representatives from 350 investment funds. The 16-year-old conference provides exposure for a range of startups which Venture Atlanta says has sparked $7.5 billion of capital raised and $17 billion in exits.
A record 550 companies applied to pitch during the conference. Just 15% were selected, including these five from Nashville:
- Cloud Range Cyber LLC, founded by CEO Debbie Gordon. The company, which landed its first outside equity in 2022, simulates cyberattacks for client training and has pitched at Venture Atlanta before.
- Spiny.ai, a digital publishing and analytics platform that launched less than a year ago with a $2.5 million raise led by Nashville Capital Network. Co-founders include Shannon Terry, a serial entrepreneur whose other companies include On3 and Outsider.
- Care Sherpa, a health care startup that's also up for a Nashville Entrepreneur Center award this fall. Founder and CEO Jessica Walker says the company "provides a tech-enabled revenue growth service for medical providers, using personalized [artificial intelligence], smart automation, and live concierge agents to enhance the new patient experience."
- Appsurify Inc., whose testing program checks for bugs in software. CEO and co-founder Johnston Harris is based in Nashville.
- Foresight, whose co-founders Sagar Shukla and Nigel Hammond picked Nashville to start their company in 2021 and just raised $1.2 million.
