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| 2026 Candidates (innov865Alliance) |
At a recent Knox County mayoral forum, Lance Adler, founder of Witching Hour, a start-up developing technology to reduce forest fires sparked by failed or faulty electric power lines, posed a question to the four candidates for mayor of Knox County seated in front of standing-room-only crowd at 121 Tech Hub, a local incubator for start-ups.
“As mayor, what would you do to champion innovation, entrepreneurship, small business and makers?” asked Adler.
Each of the candidates, three Republican and one Democrat, offered a take on Adler's question, as follow.
Kim Frazier, suggested start-ups could be brought together with county government to address issues like roads or development. Betsy Henderson cited her work on the school board to train future workforce and keep students from leaving for better jobs elsewhere. Larsen Jay said the mayor has an opportunity, as “head cheerleader” to get the attention of those who could support the county’s business community. And Beau Hawk stated the county mayor can set priorities and eliminate barriers to businesses trying to get off the ground.
The three Republicans then smoothly differentiated themselves from one another.
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Larsen Jay proved expansive, with observations including his belief that investment capital is much more accessible in Knoxville now than decades ago, despite many local investors remaining wary of startup risks.
Jay asserted he is the candidate with the most direct experience as an entrepreneur, in that that he has thus far started six small businesses (including one nonprofit) in Knox County. He also confirmed that in addition to his business-alliance role with PYA PC—which may involve picking-up former PYA duties of now theoretically retired Tom Ballard)—he is an LP with both Knoxville's Market Square Ventures and Greater Sum Ventures.
Frazier cited her policy platform's focus on improving infrastructure within a county that has seen staggering growth.
Henderson explained she essentially grew up in businesses founded by her parents, who had immigrated from Greece, and had gained understanding of their challenges first-hand. She is a member of the board of Knox County Schools and was the only candidate that night who pledged not to raise taxes.
Beau Hawk, president of the Knoxville Oak Ridge Central Labor Council (KORCLC), says his priority is to make Knox County a good place for workers to live and find competitive jobs, which he pointed-out aligns with supporting the companies that create those jobs.
On August 6, in keeping with Knox County election law, it will be sole Democrat candidate Hawk versus the winner of next week's three-way Republican Primary duke-out.
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| Mayor Glenn Jacobs |
The winner will succeed Mayor Glenn Jacobs (R), who was elected in 2018, succeeding now-U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-2).
Perhaps more important than the candidates' soundbites, was the initiative behind convening the forum, itself.
Successful execution of the April 8 event, which was sponsored by Innov865Alliance, suggests that the candidates—competing in what Frazier referred to as a 'historically risk-averse region'—assign some importance to the role of Knox County government in cultivating entrepreneurship, augmenting traditional industrial development, and staying mindful of the interests of Knox County owners of small- to medium-sized businesses.
Asked for comment on that, the event's emcee, Cortney Piper of Piper Communications, she indicated she was pleased that all the mayoral candidates demonstrated recognition of "opportunity for success" via entrepreneurship, as well as the importance of "managing growth, infrastructure, quality of life.”
Although the 7-county Knoxville region—home to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TVA and other influentials—has bragged about those intellectual resources for decades, the results of its efforts to provide government, institutional and corporate support for entrepreneurial companies are viewed by some as having lagged gains other higher-profile communities with similar economic and natural assets.
For the record, everyone interviewed for this story noted that the City of Knoxville’s Mayor Indya Kincannon has been a consistent presence at events that showcase local entrepreneurial efforts.
Adler said in a follow-up phone call, “Indiya Kincannon makes a really good effort to come to everything. I’ve met her two or three different times. It makes you feel like what you’re doing is unique and important.” Mayor Kincannon, also dealing with rising costs and slowing revenues, has released her proposed $499MM budget for FY27.
The Knox County mayoral race may yet shed significant light on opportunities local government has to contribute to continuing local efforts to create an environment in which start-ups are increasingly likely to succeed.
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| John Bruck |
Following the April 8 forum, John Bruck, co-founder of Market Square Ventures and 121 Tech Hub, where the forum was held, said local government inherently impacts local business. He cited a point candidate Jay had made regarding the county budget, which reflects considerable debt. Currently the county carries a debt load that is expected to account for 10 percent of the budget by 2030 with nearly 40 cents of every $1.55 in taxes raised going to debt service.
“I think we need to have a fiscally, financially stable county to be able to build” an environment ripe for new businesses, Bruck said.
He also cited the idea proposed by Kim Frazier of bringing start-ups in to help address local government problems as a role the county could play to encouraging entrepreneurship in the future. Bottom line: more support is needed.
“The county doesn’t show up, the city does,” Bruck added.
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Jim Biggs, executive director for the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, has been part of city efforts to be “faithful, connective tissues within that ecosystem” for more than a decade.
He said he remembers when he started with the organization assuming that the center’s inaugural “Start-up Day” would become an annual tradition, that notion was met with surprise as organizers—including leaders from the Knoxville Chamber, UT and ORNL—explained they had assumed it would be a one-off. But they came together, and these partnerships brought that event along with a range of initiatives, including the innovate865 Alliance--a showcase of local start-ups.
Practically-speaking, the Center is working to increase venture capital opportunities, and Biggs is considering funding for a position of Capital Connector whose sole function is to seek out and craft creative opportunities for financing as well as prepare businesses to pursue them.
Biggs said he is also focused on tapping local resources in the AI space, bringing experts together to explore the opportunities for creating businesses around AI--either by building AI tools or business around unique applications of the information itself.
Local government plays a role in all of this, Biggs said, with officials coming together with other partners to work on the gaps local companies still face and stepping up to make doing business as easy as possible.
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| Jim Biggs |
For example, local governments can address their regulatory framework, making sure there aren’t needless hurdles for small companies such as taxes or compliance issues. It’s also up to local government to address issues like transportation and power capacity that can directly impact business operations. And local government can also get creative: For example, Nashville utilized covid recovery funds to support start-ups, and a city on Colorado created a fund that insured loans to start-ups, reducing the risk for potential investor.
Biggs emphasized that in addition to the nuts and bolts of raising-up new businesses, the region needs to do a better job of promoting what’s already happening and creating an identity for itself as a place that’s entrepreneur-friendly and where start-ups are succeeding.
“Chattanooga does a really good job of selling themselves internally and externally,” Biggs said. “Changing that dynamic will help people see the value of entrepreneurs.”
Based on his conversations with successive local mayors, Biggs said he has come to believe they are be personally supportive of entrepreneurial efforts—a sentiment he believes the current mayoral candidates share.
He added there is also “growing recognition that (supporting the start-up community is an) impactful way to invest county funds.”
And even for a sometimes cash-strapped county government, it doesn’t take much to impact start-ups in a positive way, said entrepreneur Lance Adler.
He said he can’t say enough good things about the support his company, Witching Hour, has received as it develops robotic technology to insulate power lines against their tendency to cause forest fires.
Adler started the company through the Techstars program in 2023 and he has participated in UT’s SPARK incubator as well, working with KUB to develop the product. TVA is also a partner, and Witching Hour was recently scheduled to do a demonstration for its first customer test at EPB in Chattanooga.
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| Lance Adler |
“Tennessee is one of the best places in the country to build anything in the energy, utility field. There are just so many resources here, and everyone here just wants to help. There are so many partnerships that make this a really good place to build,” Adler said on a podcast.
There’s a lot of resources here, especially for what I’m doing,” he said. “People here are actually willing to stick their neck out for you and help. They all sort of know each other. Engaging with KUB has been really important. That’s a really important part of keeping companies.”
Adler believes it’s easier for government to play a role in helping entrepreneurs than they might think.
“I know a little start-up that has a robot that fills up potholes, he said. “That would be really cool for the county to take up a contract for $20,000 (with the start-up)... That’s like an hour of a big company’s time, but it’s the world to a small company.”
And if the project succeeded, “it would pay off many times over,” said Adler.
VNC NOTES AND RESOURCES
Given that Knoxville innovation has often been mentioned, we first note that the Knoxville Chamber is recruiting (deadline Sunday, May 10) a Director of Innovation to support implementation of the Chamber's Regional Innovation Growth Strategy (RIGS). The position reports to VP Regional Enhancement Amy Nolan.
In addition to Adler, four other Knoxville entrepreneurs pitch pre-vetted questions to the panelists: Dan Lee of Perseus Materials; Don DeRosa, CEO of Eonix; Joel Smith, CEO of TeachCraft; and Bailey Foster, co-founder and CEO of Real Good Kitchen. Their questions are compiled here.
VNC coverage of the mayoral race led us to compile an informal list dozens of issues touched upon to varying degrees by this year's candidates.
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Across decades, vital connections and resources have grown within the Knoxville entrepreneurial ecosystem, partly as the result of partnerships with state government, strengthening of ties between ORNL and the University of Tennessee, and more recently as a result of efforts by the City of Knoxville to support entrepreneurs by helping establish the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (vintage 2012) and related initiatives.
VNC notes that during the past 20 years, as in most of the nation's regional entrepreneurial ecosystems, gains and losses of entrepreneurial assets have been erased from the minds of many locals, who have little, if any memory of the excitement, tension and-or tumult that came with the fates of such local pioneer tech enterprises as iPix Corporation, the evolution of IdleAir or the passage of former regional catalyst Tech2020—much less the pride that came 44 years ago with Knoxville's hosting of the 1982 World's Fair, which gave rise to the city's Sunsphere.
REPLAY: Innov865 hosts on YouTube a high-quality replay of the joint appearance of entrepreneur questioners and the four Knox County mayoral candidates.
Currently, the actual taped program begins 00:25:30 into the tape at this link, at which point emcee Piper takes charge of the program. It's possible that first 25 minutes of extraneous material will be tossed. VNC
Larisa Brass's career has included a combined eight years as a staff reporter with the Knoxville News Sentinel and The Oak Ridger, as well as previous communications for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and others, plus freelance writing across decades. She, too, is a transplant, having relocated to Tennessee from Ohio with her parents as a 4-year-old.
. last edited 1 May 2026 1524 CT
