For more than seven years, Start Co. — a Memphis-based technology startup business accelerator — has been turning ideas into companies. From e-book publishing to predicting when vehicles will break down in the future to innovative software technologies for digital audio workstations, Start Co. helps tech entrepreneurs move from product launch to product success to business success with business and technical assistance, mentorship, capital, and other resources.

Where did the company that helps incubate new business leaders turn for more education about leadership development and coaching? Vanderbilt’s Executive Development Institute.

“It is important to ‘sharpen the saw,’ and short courses are a great way to do that,” says Eric Mathews, the founder and CEO of Start Co. “From Leading Change to Frameworks for Coaching, the EDI programs are practical and highly relevant. The instructors are industry experts, and they genuinely care about ensuring you can apply what you learn.”

Mathews chose to make the three-hour drive to Nashville to complete three EDI courses and earn a certificate. “The program reputation was certainly a factor [in my decision],” he says, “but also the proximity and value for the money.”

The courses, he says, delivered everything he expected, along with something he had not anticipated. “I was expecting it to be more theoretical in nature,” Eric says. “I was pleased to find scenario-based training as the key learning mechanism.”