Seigenthaler

[updated 9 July 2014: SEC filing today shows heavy Healthcare allocation, Healthstream only Tech target, filing here.-Ed.] LOCAL SHARES, the financial startup led by Elizabeth Seigenthaler Courtney, is coming into focus. Sorta. Not surprisingly, Courtney and other associated with the firm all declined to comment on the venture, when contacted by VNC, but several sources say the company will offer one or more exchange-traded funds (ETF's), a model that has become well established in the past decade. The company's slogan -- Invest in What you Know -- reinforces belief in some quarters that the LocalShares ETF will track locally based public companies. The company's June 19 SEC filing showed $1MM had been raised, but VNC research shows no prospectus has been filed for the fund, itself. Others associated with the company include Bill Decker (wealth management), Cam Newton (RelevanceCapital) and XMi executives Mike Shmerling and Jim Phillips (this is not believed to involve an investment by XMi's TNInvestco fund). New York City (and former Nashville) attorney Tripp Fried dealt with the state corporate filing, records show. Seigenthaler PR lists the company among its financial clients, and the URL is registered in the name of a SeigPR staffer; and, the parked site is now dressed-up for an eventual debut. Courtney is chairman and CEO of the firm bearing the Seigenthaler family surname.

Goad

FRED GOAD, the quietly ubiquitous mid-Tennessee Angel investor, has popped-up as an investor in BrightWhistle, the Atlanta-based startup that helps physicians, insurers and hospital generate patient referrals, employing search and socialmedia. The company recently announced completing its $2.1MM A round, and touted Goad's participation. A source said Goad had been enlisted through the good offices of Emerson Fann, managing partner of Southeast Technology Fund, in Atlanta. The startup is led by Greg Foster, who also recently served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Chrysalis Ventures in Louisville. Goad, of course, joined with Jim Kever more than a decade ago to found Voyent Partners, and, among many other affiliations, is associated with Clayton Associates and is a director of Nashville's Informatics Corporation of America (ICA), a Vanderbilt University spin-out.

Thompson

CYBER PHYSICAL SYSTEMS, led by co-founder and CEO Chris Thompson, now 24, has raised $2.1 million in capital, thus far, with major support from Eric Satz's Tennessee Community Ventures, a TNInvestco fund that now has controlling interest in Cyber Physical. Other investors in addition to Thompson are co-founder and fellow Vanderbilt alumnus Will Green; entrepreneur and Mountain Group Capital exec Byron Smith; and, Jumpstart Foundry. The company has received co-investment from the state INCITE program, according to Thompson. Cyber's first product, as previously reported by VNC, is the Split|Secnd automatic crash or incident notification system, which the startup hopes to market to consumers, beginning in November, ahead of the Christmas season, Thompson told VNC this week. The Split|Second website is being revamped by Chicago-based One Design Company much of its engineering work is being done by a Seattle-based firm. Since VNC's earlier report, the company has added Bank of America to its team and chose accountant Robin Clark White, based in Mt. Juliet. For other advisors and more on the company's business plan and background, see this VNC story. A portion of the $2.1MM raised to date was recently reported in an SEC filing. Satz is spreading the love: In addition to TNCV's TNInvestco-fueled investments in Streamweaver, Overdog (formerly, ProPlayer Connect) and other businesses, VNC research suggests that Satz personally has invested as an Angel in Santa.com and Panopto, the latter a platform for live webcasting and other purposes. Not bad for an entrepreneur who four years ago got the priceless lesson that no entrepreneur ever deliberately seeks. VNC