image: Entrepreneurs, researchers and program participants gather on the field at Covenant Health Park in Knoxville on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, during the Department of Energy’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP) Demo Day, hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Innovation Crossroads. During half time of a OneKnox soccer game, the innovators and supporters were recognized by the crowd.
Credit: Credit: Kurt Weiss/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
More than 250 entrepreneurs, investors, federal leaders and innovation ecosystem partners gathered in Knoxville on May 13 for Demo Day 2026, showcasing how the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP) is helping transform breakthrough technologies into growing companies. The event was organized by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Innovation Crossroads, in Knoxville, Tennessee and held at Covenant Health Park.
Innovation Crossroads marks a decade of impact
Innovation Crossroads connects early career energy and manufacturing entrepreneurs with ORNL resources over a two-year program that includes mentorship in marketing and entrepreneurship. This year, Innovation Crossroads celebrates its tenth year.
“We’ve been able to use cutting edge facilities, like Carbon Fiber Technology Facility,” said Brian Iezzi, Fibarcode founder and Innovation Crossroads fellow, “to scale from batch process to continuous process.”
This program has enabled the success of not only individual technologies and companies, but it has also had a broader impact on the East Tennessee community.
Since its first cohort in 2017, Innovation Crossroads has supported over 51 startups, more than half of which have remained in the region. Those companies have achieved over $100 million in sales revenue and $326.8 million in follow-on funding.
A new video highlighting the first decade of Innovation Crossroads explores how the program has helped shape East Tennessee’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and support the growth of innovation-driven companies.
“I think Innovation Crossroads is very valuable not only to ORNL, where it’s located, but the community at large,” said John Bruck, co-founder and partner of Market Square Ventures and 121 Tech Hub. “The innovation that happens at ORNL and that is so strongly encouraged in the Innovation Crossroads program is the source of new ideas that become parts of big companies, which create jobs, which create opportunities for communities to grow.”
Startups tackle manufacturing and energy challenges
The translational success of Innovation Crossroads is mirrored in the success of the LEEP program, as highlighted by Anthony Pugliese, director of the Office of Technology Commercialization and the Chief Commercialization Officer of the DOE. “About half of startups fail by year five,” said Pugliese during Demo Day, “and for first-time founders, the success rate is even lower: 18 percent.”
In comparison, LEEP-supported startups have experienced a 92 percent success rate. LEEP fellows have created more than 3,900 American jobs and 202 new businesses nationally, resulting in nearly $6 billion in follow-on funding.
Innovation Crossroads Cohort 2024 includes:
- Katy Bradford, Cassette Construction, which seeks to improve inefficient or wasteful construction processes.
- Jordan Cannon, Circular Biosciences, which has developed technology to enable plastics to degrade more efficiently.
- Vinit Chaudhary, Elemental Composites, which is expanding the composite industry supply chain through the manufacturing of fiber-reinforced composites.
- Brian Iezzi, Fibarcode, whose novel textile labeling method is designed for authentication, traceability and end-of-use management.
- Kevin Roccapriore, AtomQ, which is expanding the supply of qubits to enable further quantum exploration.
- Tim Vosburgh, Coulomb Technology, which develops and manufactures novel battery cells.
Attendees from across Tennessee and the nation filled Covenant Health Park to hear pitches from these and other LEEP fellows, who shared their innovative solutions to challenges facing energy and manufacturing.
“Innovation becomes something that benefits everyone,” said Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. “Today is about opening doors.” After Mayor Jacobs’ remarks, the afternoon pitch session opened with 17 Tennessee-based startups who presented to a crowd of potential investors.
After LEEP Fellows pitched their technologies, they moved to the Covenant Health Park concourse, where they demonstrated their technologies to OneKnox soccer club fans, before taking the pitch at halftime to cap off a day — and night — of innovation.
Innovation Crossroads is supported by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, Building Technologies Office, the DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences program and the Tennessee Valley Authority. LEEP is managed by DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.