Nooga Startups is an open-source website that links to local tech businesses. (Screenshot: Staff)

Authored By Chloé Morrison

When the winners of the first Gig Tank competition moved to Chattanooga, they promised they would help unite the startup community.

“We told Lamp Post that we were going to grow the startup community and also bring them together,” TJ Weigel, co-founder of Banyan, said. “One of the things we wanted to do was make a site to showcase all the awesome things that are happening in Chattanooga.”

Banyan is a cloud-based control system for collaborative research. The product aims to make it easier for researchers at universities nationwide to share information.

After winning Gig Tank, securing funding and moving to Chattanooga to work with startup incubator Lamp Post, Weigel and co-creator Toni Gamayel created a website called Nooga Startups that highlights and links to new, local businesses.

The website is open-source, which means developers have access to the code and can enter their website’s information and request for it to be included.

Did you know? -Chatype, Chattanooga’s typeface, is used throughout the website. –Weigel moved to Chattanooga from Florida in January. He saw snow for the first time here recently. -Other cities such as New York have similar sites.

Local business leaders can either issue a request using Github-which is an online location where developers house their open-source code-or they can email the Nooga Startups team to be included.

“There are a couple people that applied that only had a Facebook page,” Weigel said. “So we didn’t do that. We said, ‘Come back when you have an actual product and home page.'”

LifeKraze team members used Github to submit their own code, and CEO of the company Ben Wagner said he loves the idea of having an easy, reliable platform to find information about local businesses.

He said via email that it helps create a stronger sense of teamwork in Chattanooga and can strengthen relationships for continued success.

Other participants also said they think the project is a great addition to the community.

“It’s great to see Nooga Startups recognizing the entrepreneurial spirit here in Chattanooga, in both the for-profit and nonprofit sector,” Heather Ewalt, co-founder of Causeway.org, said via email.

Chief Operation Officer of Delegator Andrew Scarbrough said his company’s mission involves supporting and growing businesses, such as Nooga Startups.

“We live and breathe this stuff, and like the folks behind NoogaStartups.com, whatever we can do to help Chattanooga’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem to thrive, we try to do,” he said in a prepared statement. “There’s a revolution going on here, and Delegator is proudly marching alongside all our fellow startups.”

Disclaimer: Nooga.com is affiliated with the Lamp Post Group, but editorial decisions for this publication are made independently of the Lamp Post Group.