Tennessee native Eller Kelliher built her career across the state’s venture capital scene. She started as an intern at the angel fund The JumpFund in Chattanooga and then moved her way up the ranks at Jumpstart Foundry, a seed-stage healthcare innovation fund based out of Nashville. She served as the fund’s Managing Director from 2018 to 2022. Now as the new Chief Investment Officer for LaunchTN and its InvestTN fund, she’s looking to back even more startups across The Volunteer State.
Kelliher leads InvestTN’s Investment Programs, including the $70 million InvestTN Fund that provides direct equity investments into startups and early-stage fund managers building across Tennessee. The mission is simple: Build the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
For Kelliher, Tennessee is a prime place to build a business. On a macro level, the state has a business-friendly environment and tax structure. That helps local entrepreneurs grow while also attracting a new crop of business owners who have moved to Tennessee since the pandemic. That has helped cities like Nashville, Oak Ridge, and Knoxville grow as key biotech and healthtech hubs, while places like Chattanooga have become a growing space for robotics and logistics companies.
But there are also more intangible benefits that help make Tennessee a strong place to build a business. For Kelliher, it is the fact that the state embraces its nickname.
“The Volunteer State really does resonate with the business community here,” she told Hypepotamus. “Everyone is happy to volunteer their network and their connections.”
There is also a strong connection forged among the state’s business communities. LaunchTN partners with eighth regional entrepreneur centers, from Memphis in the southwest portion of the state to Kingsport in the northeast.
InvestTN’s Next Chapter
Eller Kelliher took over the Chief Investment Officer role from Monique Villa Capra, who now serves as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence for Mucker Capital and a Senior Investment Advisor at Beyond Ventures.
As Kelliher explains, InvestTN is a different investing position than it was in previous years.
In earlier stages, InvestTN could only provide matching funds. But now, the team can lead rounds and “determine how big of a check we want to write,” Kelliher added. As a lead investor, Kelliher hopes that “other VCs and other private investors can see us as a co-investor,” which she believes can help Tennessee founders raise more of the capital they need to grow.
Founder Advice
To date, InvestTN’s portfolio includes twelve startups. Half of those are based in Nashville, but the entire portfolio boasts founders building across Fintech, healthcare, ecommerce, CPG, and HRTech industries.
Regardless of what industries they are building in, Kelliher said that InvestTN looks for founders that are “highly coachable, natural leaders, and have some solid industry experience or know the pain point” they are trying to solve for.
“I do like seeing how a founder has been able to assemble a team and group of advisers around them,” she added. “Especially for first-time founders, keeping an eye on who they bring into their circle is really important.”