Search

Chattanooga: Doing the heavy lifting, literally

Holly Ashley

Two Auburn University fraternity brothers build a startup that immediately scales beyond all expectations. The high-growth business catches the eye of influential venture capitalists who recruit the founders to a city engineered for entrepreneurial growth. Where, you might ask? Chattanooga, of course.

The founders are Cameron Doody and Stephen Vlahos and the startup is Bellhops. Not your typical moving company, Bellhops harnesses the energy of college students to provide legendary customer service while eliminating some very real pain points from the moving experience: endless packing, heavy lifting and bribing friends to load and unload moving trucks. Using an on-demand platform accessed through the Bellhops app, customers can schedule a trusty bellhop and a rental truck with 24-hours’ notice and a few taps on a mobile device. Easy peasy.   

Since relocating their startup to Chattanooga, Bellhops has raised a total of $19.5 million in Series A and B investments, created a nationwide network of 10,000 active Bellhops and earned a ranking of 4th on Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2015 list of “25 Best Large-Company Cultures.”  And their success isn’t all about the headband.

 “The overall progress of the city and support from the community have been a huge factor in team satisfaction and are really allowing us to recruit top-tier talent to Chattanooga from all over the country,” Vlahos says. From access to capital and talent, to delivering an entrepreneur-approved quality of life, Chattanooga helps high growth businesses with all their heavy lifting.

Other Topics

Diversify 2025 explored strategies for advancing diversity in business, with Juanita McDowell’s S.T.I.C.K.Y.™ program inspiring smarter goal setting and sustainable success.

On Wednesday, June 4, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed a full house of approximately 150 community members to the Finley Stadium Ultra Club for its annual Legislative Wrap Up. The event featured a panel discussion with three members…

The Chamber’s Protégé and Leadership programs get leaders thinking about the city’s future—and how they can be part of its growth. Attracting and retaining top talent requires more than offering competitive salaries, benefits, and fun perks. It means creating opportunities…

At Tiny Tigers Learning Center, LaShon Carter makes sure everyone gets an education. LaShon Carter has always been an educator at heart. But she never imagined it would take the shape of childcare. Carter grew up around daycare, watching her…

Over the last 12 months, Shappi - a three-year-old startup - has delivered more than $5 million in products to more than 300 locations and thousands of customers in South America. Described as the logistics-travel equivalent of Uber or Airbnb,…

A Brickyard engineer’s journey from Sudan to the Scenic City Brickyard, Chattanooga’s booming venture capital firm on the Southside, is a beehive of activity. But if you were to visit it on any given day, one of the things you…

Sign up for weekly updates.