Meet the Team

Isaiah Allenlundy, mainly known as ‘Ziggy’ for the last 26 years, is a Memphis native and University of Memphis alumni. During his high school and college years, he proved to have great enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and innovation. In between classes (and sometimes during class), he founded an HVAC equipment delivery company with his long-time cofounder, led a startup connecting college students to odd jobs for quick cash, served as the Vice President of his campus’ Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, and joined LaunchTN’s Venture Fellows cohort. After college, he continued his entrepreneurial endeavors through Venture for America, a 2-year fellowship program to aid recent college graduates in creating economic opportunity in American cities, where he worked for the global entrepreneur support organization, Endeavor, in Detroit. After a stint of bartending, he is happy to continue providing support to entrepreneurs through Launch Tennessee. When Ziggy is not being a cheerleader for entrepreneurs, he can be found hanging out with his beloved canine companion, training for a Strongman competition, and nerding out to his favorite Sci-Fi books.

Lindsey Cox is the Chief Executive Officer at Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN), a public-private partnership supporting entrepreneurs and innovation across the state of Tennessee.

A Tennessee native, Lindsey has dedicated her career to the support and acceleration of startups and entrepreneurs in Tennessee and the Southeast. During her first tenure at LaunchTN, she reimagined 3686 Entrepreneurship Festival into a two-day celebration of startup founders, investors and partners, which generated national attention for Tennessee’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. She also created LaunchTN’s government relations team and oversaw the passage and administration of the state’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Matching Program, which to date has deployed $11M of grants into tech-enabled, Tennessee-based companies.

Lindsey’s experience is vast with tenure at the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C., she led their signature grant program, Build to Scale. To recently, serving as CEO of The Company Lab (CO.LAB) in Chattanooga, TN, where she oversaw the relaunch of Startup Week Chattanooga, revitalized legacy programs and put in place a team positioned to grow Chattanooga’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Khrys Hatch currently serves as Launch Tennessee’s Senior Associate where he works to expand and expedite the availability of capital to TN startups so that they can grow, create jobs, and build accessible economic prosperity. As part of those efforts, he manages LaunchTN’s Impact Fund, co-investor network, and several other capital-focused initiatives.

He also is a Nashville native and Summa Cum Laude graduate of Fisk University.

Eller Kelliher recently joined Launch Tennessee as Investor-in-Residence to the new $70M InvestTN Fund. In this role she assists the InvestTN team with investment strategy, due diligence, and capital deployment through the Regional Seed Fund and Technology Fund. She is a native Tennessean having grown up in Chattanooga. She moved to Nashville in 2015 to start a career in Venture Capital.

Eller spent seven years with Nashville-based early-stage healthcare fund, Jumpstart Health Investors. She served as Managing Director of Jumpstart Foundry from 2018-2021 and in that capacity invested in over 100 pre-seed stage healthcare technology companies and helped advise founders areas business operations, fundraising, go-to-market strategy, and team development. Most recently she was a Partner with SeedtoB Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm in Atlanta, GA that invests in U.S.-based companies delivering differentiated technological innovation in healthcare with an emphasis on platforms powered by AI. She currently serves as an Investment Advisor to SeedtoB, sits on multiple portfolio company boards, and is an independent consultant to startups and funds.

Evan is a Knoxville native and graduate of Appalachian State University.

He serves as the Capital Analyst where he oversees the BuildTN Regional Seed Fund, the Venture Fellows Program, and the TN Deal Reports.

He loves 11-minute naps, Dolly Parton, and dabbling in sports.

Monique Villa is the Chief Investment Officer at Launch Tennessee leading capital programs and investments in early-stage companies and venture funds. She is also the Co-Founder of Build In SE, a network of ecosystem builders committed to supporting entrepreneurs in the Southeast. Prior to joining Launch Tennessee, she was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) and Investor with Mucker Capital. In 2018, she joined Mucker’s investment team and opened the firm’s first satellite office in Nashville to lead investments into early-stage startups across the Southeast and North America. A native of Los Angeles, Monique’s career in early-stage venture capital began in 2013 as Head of Investor Relations for Velos Partners, a fund based in Los Angeles and Singapore focused on emerging markets. She also served as Chief of Staff to the founding partner of Core Innovation Capital, a fintech-focused fund based in LA and San Francisco. Earlier in her career, Monique advised digital entertainment startups on business development and strategic partnerships and later went on to lead a startup accelerator for students in the Greater Los Angeles area. Her startup career began in 2008 while interning for TOMS, where she supported finance and inventory management projects for several nationwide launches.