Nashville's startup scene is roaring like a Saturday night on Lower Broadway.
Eye-popping funding rounds, multimillion dollar exits and a wave of businesses launching outside of the city's traditional health care ecosystem have elevated Nashville's profile in the startup world, while inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs to innovate.
To cover this unprecedented era of entrepreneurship in Music City, the Nashville Business Journal is launching a new outlet called Nashville Inno, your go-to source for reporting on early-stage startups and innovative companies and entrepreneurs in Middle Tennessee.
To celebrate Inno's launch, we found six creative Nashville entrepreneurs under the age of 25 that are hustling to build their startups into the city's next success stories.
Some of these young entrepreneurs are juggling running their business while still attending college, while others are searching for funding to take their startups to the next level. All have faced never-before-seen challenges to construct a new business amid a global pandemic.
But as one founder told us, these entrepreneurs "don’t really take ‘no’ for an answer."
Presented in her words:
Mighty Blendz are meal-replacement instant smoothies for busy people on the go. My background is in health and nutrition. I’ve been really passionate about it for a long time, and I was always a huge fan of smoothies, because they were a super simple way to get the macro nutrients I needed into my diet at the beginning of the day.
But I realized when I’m on the go, I don’t have the ability to make that same smoothie formula that I always do. So, I wanted my smoothie formula of protein, healthy fats, leafy greens and fiber in a powder form that I could shake up wherever I was on the go. I started taking different ingredients and powders in my kitchen — don’t worry, it’s no longer made in my kitchen — and it took probably six months of formulating, sending out samples, getting feedback and iterating the product until I was set on a formula.
I played pretty competitive lacrosse in high school … and got really into managing my food and my training routine and realized that could help me perform better at the sport. That piqued my interest in different types of diets to help with performance, but also everyday life. I continued that interest into getting my yoga instructor certification and then doing a yearlong [online] program with this place called Institute for Integrated Nutrition in New York … which really helped deepen my understanding of nutrition and how it impacts us and how different people need different things.
I’ve always been curious about entrepreneurship, but never thought I would start something. … But when I couldn’t find [a smoothie] on the market that met all the criteria I was looking for, I thought, “If I want this so badly, surely there have to be other people who would want this, too, and could benefit from it.”
Going through the incubator program at Vanderbilt, called Builder, was super instrumental to me figuring out all the business aspects for Mighty Blendz, because it’s one thing to have an idea, but it takes a lot of work and strategic thinking to turn that into a profitable and sustainable business.
I was always worried that if I told someone I wanted to make this product and make it into a big business … they would put doubt into my head early on, which I think can be dangerous for entrepreneurs. … So I kept it pretty quiet for a while and waited for it to have legs before I told a lot of people, because by that point you’re far enough in. … But a really cool part of the [Builder] program was … the community part of it, and it was nice because entrepreneurship can sometimes be a bit of a lonely journey, in terms of people not understanding the things you’re going through.
There are a lot of exciting parts about entrepreneurship, and then there’s everything you don’t realize that goes into it, like dealing with business insurance and taxes and all the non-glamourous things. But I think you have to be a little bit naive at the beginning, otherwise a lot of people wouldn’t do it.
The biggest hurdle [for me] has been getting the shaker bottles. … With the worldwide shipping chaos due to Covid, they were supposed to arrive July 17, but that has been pushed back to the end of September. For me, it’s always difficult because I want things to happen quickly.
The next 12 months, I’d like to sell out of the first inventory we have, which is our Mighty Greens formula. I have a few other formulas in the works for feature flavors, which I would love to launch, at least one by the end of the year and roll out a few others into 2022. Also, building out a really strong fulfillment process and supply chain. … I’d also really like to do a few retail partnerships, in particular a few different climbing gyms that I’d love to get my blends in front of.
[My advice to other young entrepreneurs] is to always focus on: “What problem are you solving?” There are a lot of glamorous and sparkly ideas that are fun to think about … but a lot of times they end up being a solution in search of a problem. … Think long and hard about, “What problem am I solving with this product or service?” As long you can keep that top of mind, you can be successful.
Age: 21
Company name: Mighty Blendz
Year founded: 2021
Employees: 1
Total money invested: $30,000
Total money raised: $30,000, from grants, pitch competitions and personal savings
Revenue: Undisclosed
Any programs or business incubators you have participated in to help launch or grow your business: Vanderbilt Builder by the Wond’ry
