Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center

We wanted to give a special shout-out to one of our sponsors, Fite Building Company!

Fite Building Company is a full-service general contracting and construction management firm serving commercial and industrial customers across the Southeast.

With over 50 years of experience, Fite has built a reputation for delivering quality construction services guided by a commitment to investing in the people and communities it serves.

Thank you, Fite, for continuing to help us serve entrepreneurs across Decatur and Morgan County.

Calling Alabama Startups!

Alabama Founder Fest is connecting growing startups with investors and corporate leaders for networking, funding, and growth opportunities!

December 7–8 | Birmingham, AL

Participation is invite-only, but founders do not need to be part of an accelerator program to apply.

Apply here:

Founders — ALABAMA FOUNDER FEST Founders Founder Fest is your chance to showcase what’s next in Alabama tech. Eligible companies must be enrolled in an Alabama accelerator or innovation program, or have active operations in the state of Alabama. To join, your company must be actively raising capital now or in the next six months...

Hello Everyone, the conversation about AI is complicated and moving very fast, and we are seeking to respond to a variety of questions here about the Alabama AI Accelerator, so we ask for patience as we begin to do so. This post, as a result, is a little long.

1. The E-Center is a nonprofit economic development organization which supports entrepreneurs and people who hope to start a business.

2. We respect and understand the very real concerns most people have about AI – including concerns which have been expressed even by people who work for AI companies. Those concerns are real and valid. We share many of them.

3. We are working to make AI a source of opportunity, not uncertainty, for the public. Our mission will be to help promising AI companies grow – and also to develop tools which all current Alabama residents can use to start and grow their own companies using AI. The number of one-person, million-dollar companies has doubled in this country in the past several years. We’d like to see that happen for you, especially with all the uncertainty surrounding jobs. This initiative is an effort to respond to concerns we’ve heard – it is because of those very concerns that we are doing this.

4. This is not a data center. It is absolutely true you need data centers to have AI, just as you need them to post comments on social media, but this effort is not a data center. It’s just not. It is an effort to create opportunities for our residents so they have a chance to benefit from AI.

5. At the end of the day, we think it is better to do everything we can to make AI a source of opportunity for people than to do nothing and hope things just work for out for everyone. That’s too big of a risk to take with peoples’ futures.

We are thankful for the excitement we have heard from many people who see this initiative as a way to improve their own futures. At the same time, we want to be sure to address any questions or concerns as the conversation progresses. We all have a stake in this discussion, and peoples’ voices deserve to be heard on this critical issue which is impacting all of our lives in so many ways, so quickly.

Learn about marketing in the age of AI and win $500 for your AI start-up idea! Free lunch; register below!

Hometown AI: How Do You Execute Marketing in the Age of AI? Join us to learn practical marketing strategies for an AI-driven world. Free event with lunch provided!

Somebody will win $500 for their AI-based company idea from Chris Smith of Atlanta, the speaker at our third Hometown AI Series event - and you'll learn how to approach marketing in the age of AI! Free, lunch provided. Register below.

https://hometownaimarketing.eventbrite.com

Hometown AI: How Do You Execute Marketing in the Age of AI? Join us to learn practical marketing strategies for an AI-driven world. Free event with lunch provided!

Registration is open for our September ANEW Quarterly Lunch! 🎉

This quarter, Vicki Stephenson is joining us for a conversation about The Woman You're Becoming.

Her premise: the most important thing you build isn't your business — it's the woman you become while you're building it.

This won't be a "here are 5 things to do" kind of talk. It's a real conversation about success, comparison, freedom, and identity — and what all this building is actually forming in us.

🗓️ Tuesday, Sept 15 | 12:00–1:30 PM
📍 Decatur Morgan County Tourism – Visitors Center
💸 FREE to attend

RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1982357632041?aff=oddtdtcreator

Session Two of our Hometown AI Series is in the books!

A special thank you to our speakers for sharing their experience and helping us separate the hype from the real opportunities AI can create.

Stay tuned for the announcement of our third session this week!

Thank you, The Decatur Daily, for sharing our upcoming Hometown AI Session! We're excited to welcome the founders of Gradly and hear them share how they started and scaled a business using AI!

E-Center to hold session on artificial intelligence The Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center’s second session on “Using AI To Launch Your Business: Fact Vs. Fiction” is set for Aug. 28 at noon.

Want to learn more about starting your own business using AI, for free and with lunch provided? Register below!

Hometown AI: Using AI to Launch Your Business- Fact vs Fiction Learn how to separate AI hype from real world opportunity from the founders of Gradly, which was built from the ground up using these tools!