Crossroads Downtown Partnership Launches CO.STARTERS
Morristown, TN, Feb. 2, 2017 – Crossroads Downtown Partnership will soon offer CO.STARTERS, a
nationally renowned platform that helps communities grow local business. The nine-week program
equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the insights, relationships, and tools needed to turn business
ideas into action. Unlike traditional platforms, CO.STARTERS applies the lean business modeling
methods popular among high-growth startups to businesses of all kinds.
The CO.STARTERS program has been adopted by more than a dozen entrepreneurial organizations
in cities around the country, including Phoenix; Cincinnati; Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Nashville,
TN; Lakeland, Fla.; and Fort Wayne, Ind. This is the first program to be offered in Morristown for
the Lakeway Area.
In Morristown, CO.STARTERS will be implemented and facilitated by Crossroads Downtown
Partnership at the soon to be opened SkyMart Venture Place. Crossroads is a certified Tennessee
and National Main Street Program that works toward downtown sustainability and growth. The
nine-week CO.STARTERS program will kick off on Thursday, February 23 rd at 6 PM.
CO.STARTERS came out of The Company Lab, a Chattanooga, Tennessee organization that offers
programs and events to support local startups and innovators, acting as a catalyst for a healthy
entrepreneurial community. This new program takes the lessons learned from working with
thousands of local creative entrepreneurs and combines that knowledge with the lean business
modeling methods used by high-growth startups. The CO.STARTERS model has been tested for
years in Chattanooga, Cincinnati and Detroit, and it’s now helping other emerging startup
communities across the nation.
Crossroads started the SkyMart Venture Place and will be facilitating Co.Starters courses this year
with the help of the Tennessee Dept. of Economic Development Entrepreneur Grant. The SkyMart
Venture Place provides both mentoring through the Co.Starters program and co-working space. The
public is invited to our ribbon cutting and open house on February 21 st from 2 to 4 pm.
“Our co-working space offers high speed internet, offices, and meeting space to those that want a
convenient and low cost solution to having their own office. The SkyMart Venture Place is the only
co-working space between Knoxville and Johnson City” says Barbara Garrow, Executive Director of
Crossroads Downtown Partnership.
We will be facilitating a Co.Starters short course introduction in Jefferson City in partnership with
the Mossy Creek TN Downtown’s Economic Vitality Committee and the Knoxville Entrepreneur
Center. She and Jobe Leonard, a Dandridge native and entrepreneur, has been working with DNA-
the Downtown Newport Artists organization that has received a Creative Communities grant from
Launch TN to undertake revitalization through the arts in downtown Newport, TN.
Small business remains one of the fundamental economic drivers for local economies and job
creation, but these smaller-scale startups have not received the same level of support as their high-
growth counterparts. CO.STARTERS aims to narrow that gap.
“If you look beyond Silicon Valley and New York, there are countless communities that are full of
talented entrepreneurs, but they lack the organized community support they need to thrive,” said
Enoch Elwell, CO.STARTERS Director. “CO.STARTERS provides a structure for these communities to
achieve their economic growth goals and gives them an easy way build the connections they are
already trying to grow.”
For more information on CO.STARTERS, visit www.costarters.co. To learn about CO.STARTERS and
the SkyMart Venture Place in Morristown and the Lakeway Area, visit www.SkyMVP.com; and to
sign up for Co.Starter classes in Morristown please email
crossroadsdowntownpartnership@gmail.com or for more information call 423.312.1476.
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Media Contact:
Crossroads Downtown Partnership
Barbara Garrow
E: crossroadsdowntownpartnership@gmail.com
P: 423.312.1476
