By VNC Staff Updated March 14, 2011, 4:56 a.m.
Published Sunday, March 13, 2011 10:41 pm

Entrepreneurial teams with startup ideas they can articulate by Friday, March 18, may have viable businesses to launch by Aug. 25, 2011.

That's the scenario Nashville's JumpStart Foundry lays-out on its website, where it's taking applications from entrepreneurs who want to compete for a $15,000 stipend, a lot of coaching and education, access to development and other resources and a gameplan that should produce a half-dozen new businesses before Labor Day.

A similar invitation in Memphis, through JumpStart's Solidus-affiliated sister program, Seed Hatchery, attracted 60 or more applicants. JumpStart founder and Solidus partner Vic Gatto declined to say how many applicants have been received, thus far, but said there are already multiple applicants for each available seat in the Class of 2011.

Entrants don't need to promise to stay in Nashville after the Foundry. Gatto told VNC applicants for the 14-week program are coming from outside Tennessee, including at least four from outside the U.S. Gatto is one of four mentors and executives who will pick the winning Foundry startups later this month, with input from some of the 31 JumpStart Angels recently assembled by the JumpStart fund. The JumpStart Angels will collaborate with Nashville Capital Network (NCN) and the Angel Capital Group (ACG), Gatto said.

In the bargain, according to the sponsors: JumpStart Foundry become a co-founder of your business, receiving a standard 6 percent equity stake in the baby you'll coparent.

Entrepreneurs who aren't ready to tackle their businesses may want to procrastinate. On the JumpStart application page, entrants are invited to complete an online form that requests, among other things:  Telling what your company will do or make. Explaining how your company is new, interesting or different, and identifying your competitors. Explaining how your company will make money, and telling what things members of your team have previously created on the Web.-

The JumpStart website says the program also affords access to vendors including Agility Recovery Solutions, Amazon Web Services, Apple, Chargify, Grasshopper, JumpBox, Lockton Insurance, Media Temple, PipeJump, The Resumator, Wistia, WowJump and ZipCar, among others. VNC