Built + Nashville Entrepreneur Center
Founding Innovation Partner — Three-Year Partnership Proposal
Built becomes EC's Founding Innovation Partner. A three-year, $150,000 commitment anchored by a ten-year naming partnership on the EC's new state-of-the-art entryway, a ten-year logo placement in the EC atrium, presenting sponsorship of the NEXT Awards Real Estate and Construction category, a board seat for Chase Gilbert, and a slate of founder and audience activations built around Built's three target audiences: developers and property owners, lenders and banks, and growing businesses adding locations.
The Investment
$150,000$50,000 / year · three-year commitment · ten-year naming
Founding Innovation Partner. The naming and atrium logo run a decade; the activation package runs three years; the audience access is permanent.
Year 1 · 2026
$50,000
Entryway named. Atrium logo installed. NEXT Real Estate & Construction category presented. Chase joins board. Fireside Chat and Circle Back episode produced.
Year 2 · 2027
$50,000
NEXT category renewed. The Room hosted at Built's 12 South offices with Chase interviewed live. Cohort exposure refreshed across two accelerator classes.
Year 3 · 2028
$50,000
NEXT category renewed. Silver Happy Hour hosted at Built. Three-year impact report delivered. Renewal conversation opens on a known-value relationship.
The Marquee — A Ten-Year Naming Partnership
New Entryway · Named for Ten Years
Welcome Home, Entrepreneurs.
Powered by Built
A double meaning by design. Built builds the places people live and work; the EC is where Nashville's entrepreneurs come home. The state-of-the-art entryway is the first thing every founder, mentor, funder, and visitor sees when they walk through our doors — roughly 15,000 visits per year. The naming runs ten years, the full-color Built logo lives in the EC atrium for the same window, and both are installed in Year 1.
Why This Reaches Built's Three Audiences
Developers, property owners, real estate professionals
10+ founders · last 12 months
Active EC cohorts include the founders who use products like Built every day. Recent examples:
- Audubonic — AI-native real estate underwriting and document intelligence
- Apex Home Investors — property value and affordable housing
- Builder Assist LLC — building permits, lot research, RE development admin
- Williamz Constructors — Nashville custom home builder
- MadLocal Nashville — listing media for real estate agents and homeowners
- MUKA — minority homebuyer and real estate professional hub
- Montgomery Road Inc. — construction consulting and project management
- Green Valor — sustainable building materials
- Big Falcon Digital — drone mapping for construction
- Holladay Ventures — 2025 NEXT Award winner in Real Estate
Lenders, banks, local and state government
Direct relationships · active
The EC works inside the lender stack and the public sector that surrounds it:
- Project FinTech — Nashville's only fintech-focused accelerator; current cohort includes Croptell (lender network for verified farmers) and Skyspect (AI for floorplan lenders)
- Banking relationships — Pinnacle, Regions, FirstBank, Truist, and the Tennessee Bankers Association are recurring EC partners and mentor-network participants
- Public sector — Office of the Mayor, LaunchTN (state), and local economic development authorities work directly with the EC on programming
- Board reach — current EC board includes operators with banking, capital-markets, and government relationships at the level Built sells into
Growing businesses adding locations
$256M cumulative alumni revenue
EC founders graduate and grow. They open second and third locations, sign commercial leases, and finance build-outs:
- Daily Crunch Snacks — 2025 NEXT winner, expanding distribution and footprint nationally
- Rolled 4 Ever Ice Cream — 2025 NEXT winner, multi-location growth
- Austermiller Roofing — 2025 NEXT winner, construction-services growth story
- FortyAU, mtheory, virsitour — B2B graduates scaling commercial footprints
- 85% of EC founders still in business after 5 years — versus the 50% industry standard. These are the businesses that grow into Built's customer base.
The EC platform behind the audience
2025 footprint
5 accelerators. 1,325 mentor sessions in 2025. The audience Built wants to reach is already inside the building — Built becomes the brand on the door they walk through.
The Package
Naming · 10 years
"Welcome Home, Entrepreneurs — Powered by Built" on the new state-of-the-art entryway. Permanent installation, full design control shared with EC, ten-year term.
Atrium logo · 10 years
Full-color Built logo placement in the EC atrium for the same ten-year term. Seen by every visitor, founder, funder, mentor, and tour group.
Board seat
Chase Gilbert joins the EC Board of Directors. Peers on the board include operators Built already knows in Nashville's growth-stage business community.
NEXT Awards presenting sponsor
Built presents the Real Estate and Construction category for three consecutive NEXT Awards (Oct 19, 2026 · Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and the 2027 and 2028 ceremonies). Logo lock-up, on-stage presentation by a Built executive, category trophy named.
Fireside Chat with Chase
Chase Gilbert headlines a cohort-wide Fireside Chat — same series format as recent sessions with Marc Randolph (Netflix). Recorded, clipped, and distributed across EC channels.
Circle Back podcast episode
Chase featured on Circle Back, EC's founder podcast. The episode lives on permanently; clips run across LinkedIn, YouTube, and EC newsletters.
The Room · at Built's 12 South offices
Sam Davidson interviews Chase live at Built's new 12 South headquarters as part of The Room, EC's invite-only operator series. Built hosts; EC produces; the room is filled with Nashville's growth-stage leaders.
Silver Happy Hour · at Built
Built hosts a Silver Happy Hour at their offices — the EC's recurring members-and-mentors event. Two to three hundred attendees through the door over the evening.
Founder cohort exposure
Built brand presence across two accelerator cohorts per year for the three-year term — application pages on ec.co, founder-facing materials, demo day programs, and post-program founder content.
Quarterly impact reporting
EC delivers a quarterly report on founder activations, NEXT engagement, audience reach, and brand placements — built for Built's marketing team to forward upstream.
Why Now
Built is moving its offices to 12 South. The EC's new entryway is being built this year. The NEXT Awards Real Estate and Construction category is open for a presenting sponsor for the October 19 ceremony at Schermerhorn. Three timelines are aligning in the same calendar year — Year 1 of this partnership locks all three in. The ten-year naming is installed once and runs through the period Built will define its category leadership in Nashville and across the Southeast.
Timeline — Year 1
Summer 2026
Partnership announced. Chase confirmed to board. Entryway naming and atrium logo designs finalized.
Fall 2026
Entryway installation. NEXT Real Estate & Construction category presented Oct 19 at Schermerhorn. Fireside Chat with Chase produced.
Winter 2026 – 27
Circle Back episode released. The Room hosted at Built's 12 South offices. Q1 impact report delivered.
Next Step
A 30-minute working session between Built's marketing leadership and EC's CEO to finalize the entryway design and lock the Year 1 calendar. Sam Davidson, CEO, Nashville Entrepreneur Center.