Last week, I quoted NBJ Editor Lance Williams as saying that Nashville needs to do a better job connecting its capital with its entrepreneurial community. At least one local venture capitalist, John Chadwick, agrees. According to him, he’d welcome the competition because it would strengthen Nashville’s economy:

Chadwick said that while he enjoys Claritas’ singular standing in Entrepreneur’s annual ranking, he believes that in the longer term it’d be better for everyone if there were more early-stage investors active in Nashville. Sharpening the point, Chadwick explained that more Tennessee funds making more early-stage investments – with an eye for good deals in their own backyard – would strengthen the state’s entrepreneurial “ecosystem,” deepen the pool of capital and create a bigger pipeline of the talented executives and specialists who are so critical to early-stage success.

I think Chadwick is right that increased investment in local startups would have a snowball effect here, and I’d like to see that happen.

There’s an upside to not having a booming tech industry: not having a busting one, either. Nashville Business Journal editor Lance Williams said that the thing he notices most is that the city has a very broad-based economy.

Like anywhere else, Williams noted, Nashville isn’t recession proof. Nashville’s broad base means Nashville may be in a better position to avoid especially painful bust periods, though. Of course, conversely, it may miss out on the highest of the highs during boom times, too. He said that he thinks Nashville is “poised for nice, steady, strong growth” over the long term and credited the city’s health care and higher education communities as evidence of its well-rounded economy.

Compared to Nashville, Williams said that Austin, where he worked for the Austin Business Journal until a few months ago, is “very up and down” because of its robust technology industry. It operates very cyclically. He arrived in 2003 as the “ashes” of the dot-com bust had mostly disappeared and covered the city during four boom years before taking his new job here in Nashville. He mentioned that layoffs at major players such as Dell and AMD were taking place as he was getting ready to relocate. The Austin economy endures more periods of boom and bust, he said, because of the depth and breadth of its technology industry.

Williams noted that Austin was a “sleepy” town in the 60s and 70s and only began to emerge as a tech leader in the 80s, when some fellow (Michael Dell) started selling computers built in his dorm room and another guy (Whole Foods Market founder John Mackey) got into health food. That worked out pretty well.

Nashville Business Journal editor Lance Williams, who relocated here three months ago following stints in Austin and Cincinnati, was in the office today to talk to our staff.

Williams was honest that a big downside for Nashville, one I’ve heard mentioned elsewhere, is that access to capital for new business ideas is “horrible outside of health care.” I’m aware that the Nashville Technology Council and other organizations in town are working to change that, but in the meantime Williams said that the city isn’t a great place to be a tech company that’s looking for investment dollars.

What advice did Williams offer for changing things? “Continue to be welcoming, because the money is here. It just needs to be better connected.” It sure does.

I am impressed that the words below were spoken by two Lipscomb University professors and that an interfaith gathering recently took place on campus:

To live peacefully with Muslims and Jews, Christians must put aside the notion that their faith requires the creation of a Christian kingdom on Earth, a Lipscomb University theologian told an interfaith gathering at the university.

“We are not going to get very far in our relationship with Jews or Muslims if we do not let go of this idea,” Lipscomb professor Lee Camp said at Tuesday’s conference.

As I’ve said before, I don’t expect someone to forfeit their beliefs in the name of tolerance, but I do hope that we can all find a way to be respectful when sharing our viewpoints by acknowledging that other legitimate perspectives exist.

I’m a Lipscomb high school alumnus, and I’ve had my share of frustrations with the institution over the years. That said, there are many kind-hearted, well-intentioned people who attend, work for or otherwise contribute to life on that campus. I don’t think that this kind of event or the words above would have generated anything but outrage when I was a student. This kind of forum is major progress.