As part of StartUp Week, Adventure Sports Innovation organized a tour on Thursday morning of seven local organizations founded recently in the Scenic City. Founders and CEOs of local success stories such as Craig Fuller from Freightwaves, and Tim Piersant from Chattanooga Whiskey, shared their entrepreneurial journey with tour participants from the front doors of their own business locations. Participants rode ChattaScooters between each stop on the tour.
Patrick Molloy, who founded Adventure Sports Innovation with his wife Carolina in 2018, said “New entrepreneurs are always inspired by hearing success stories. What if we pivoted for StartUp Week this year, and instead of speakers going to the audience, we have the audience go to the speakers? We decided to offer the startup community a way to ‘Explore Differently’ by leveraging our fleet of ChattaScooters for easy transportation in between locations.”
The tour started at Adventure Sports Innovation, and included startup companies and entrepreneurial organizations. Companies on the tour included Moonlight Roller, where participants heard from its Founder Adrienne Cooper (who’s in Forbes 30 under 30 list); a visit to the Southside, where Hispanic serial entrepreneur Luis Contreras (The Local Juicery and Kitchen, Paletas and Squeaky Clean) treated them to a sample of his juices, a stop at the Edney Innovation Center to hear from Co.Labs Director of Communication Chloé Morrison; Bill Chase CMO at Bellhops; and finished up with Oddstory Brewery on MLK Boulevard where owner Bryan Boyd shared his journey.
ChattaScooter is an e-scooter rental service that Adventure Sports Innovation launched during the pandemic, and is only available in Chattanooga. The program allows riders 16 or over with a smartphone and credit (or debit) card to rent an electric scooter, making downtown navigation easy and quick. There are drop-off / pick up locations at Adventure Sports Innovation in the North Shore, the Holiday Inn and Suites Downtown and the Kinley Hotel in the Southside. ChattaScooters complies with city of Chattanooga regulations that banned dockless scooters such as those operated by Bird and Lime in Atlanta and Nashville.
One of the tour participants, Jim Frierson said, “It was by far the most fun and immersive session I’ve joined where I hear CEOs giving their perspectives! I hope it will become a Startup Week annual event.”