INNOVATE® Nashville

Innovations of the World

INNOVATE® Nashville

Nashville – Music City, the capital city of the state of Tennessee is rightfully known as the hometown of country music, the birthplace of bluegrass, and the city with the highest concentration of music industry establishments in the nation, celebrating four times more music industry employment than any other US city.

But it’s that and MUCH more! Recently voted as the 11th best place to start a business in the USA, Nashville is a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship. It has a thriving retail, automotive, and healthcare industry, and a growing tech hub, with notable organizations like Amazon, Oracle, and Facebook investing in the city.

This city, rich in history, culture, and entertainment just topped the list of the Wall Street Journal’s 2022 hottest job markets. Developments in connectivity, infrastructure and transportation will ensure that Nashville remains one of the best cities in the US to live, work, and play.

INNOVATE® Nashville showcases and profiles the innovators and innovation enablers that are contributing to the dynamic innovation ecosystem drawing talent, industry and investment to the city.

Featured Thought Leaders

Featured Thought Leaders

Featured Innovators

Featured Innovators

BOS FRAMEWORK

BOS FRAMEWORK-Cloud Enablement

Cloud Enablement, Simplified

Tech-enabled companies and enterprises save 30-50% of their Cloud development and modernization cost and time with BOS. After building over 200 software products across industries spanning Clinical Research, HealthCare, Finance, Departments of Corrections, Defense, and Education in multiple geographies including North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, BOS CEO and Founder...

IDEMIA

IDEMIA-A twenty-year innovation journey positions Tennessee as the technology backbone of the fingerprinting background check industry

A twenty-year innovation journey positions Tennessee as the technology backbone of the fingerprinting background check industry

In March 1996, Casey Mayfield interviewed with a small biometrics company in Springfield, IL in a stylish business suit she’d purchased for $25 at a secondhand store. She met the owners, was fascinated with the technology, and signed on to be a Fingerprint Technician. She soon met Erik Wolle, who...

DARVIS

DARVIS-Fueling companies of the future with automation and innovation

Fueling companies of the future with automation and innovation

DARVIS empowers companies with ultimate visibility of objects, processes and efficient solutions. This productivity as a service platform uses cutting edge artificial intelligence and computer vision technology to track objects and processes with the highest precision and privacy standards on the market. OUR TECHNOLOGY Using an existing camera infrastructure, DARVIS...

Pathway Lending

Innovation with Purpose: Transforming How Communities Access Capital

In Middle Tennessee’s fast-growing economy, small businesses are driving innovation, creating jobs, and shaping the future of communities. But too often, promising businesses and catalytic projects can’t access traditional financing. That’s where Pathway Lending steps in. As a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) based in Nashville, Pathway strengthens communities...

MobiusAI

Equipping Fleets for the Next Generation of Mobility

In the transportation industry every extra minute and every extra mile eats away at a fleet’s profit. MobiusAI is helping fleets operate at their best. The industry struggles with inefficient planning, outdated software, and razor-thin margins, but Mobius is using AI to empower fleets for excellence. From Research to Real-World...

FoxFuel

Reviving the soul of brands with sophistication & rebellion

FoxFuel Creative is a sharp-tongued, no-nonsense agency, built on the tension between sophistication and rebellion. Because brands need an agency that knows the rules and when to break them. That’s where the magic happens. In the friction between polish and punch. Between the curve in a classical column and the...

InPaceline

Riding Alongside Entrepreneurs

“You are the most qualified person to help the person you used to be.” This belief is the foundation of InPaceline, a venture studio model built by Clay Banks, a serial entrepreneur, mentor, investor, and endurance athlete. After years of scaling mountains – both literal and entrepreneurial – Banks is...

Signature Transportation Services

Because the Experience Matters

Founded in January 2001, Signature Transportation Services – originally known as Nashville Livery, Inc. – has become synonymous with luxury, professionalism, and reliability. From its beginnings on Music Row, the company has grown into Nashville’s premier limousine and chauffeured transportation provider, now operating nationwide through an extensive affiliate network. “We’re...

DALTON GETS PEOPLE

DALTON GETS PEOPLE- AND THAT'S HOW THEY GET RESULTS

AND THAT'S HOW THEY GET RESULTS

Since 1989, truly understanding people has been a unique trait of Dalton – a leading advertising, public relations and digital marketing agency with offices across the Southeast, in Nashville, Atlanta and Jacksonville. On every project, Dalton digs deep to uncover the insights and human truths that get to the emotional...

COUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

COUTURE TECHNOLOGIES-

Virtual Try On Technology is Reshaping How Customers Shop for Clothing Online

You know when you shop for clothes online, but you don’t know which size to buy or if an item will look good on your body? Couture Technologies helps apparel brands solve this massive financial and sustainability challenge by seamlessly integrating its patent-pending virtual try on technology with a brand’s...

Nashville Stars

Building a Brand, Creating a Venue, Inspiring a City

When the story of Nashville’s first Major League Baseball franchise is finally written, one theme will stand above the rest: innovation. Music City Baseball (MCB), the local ownership foundation behind the Nashville Stars, has approached the challenge of bringing MLB to Tennessee with a strategy that goes beyond the traditional...

Holland & Knight

Service Without Boundaries

Founded in 1889, Holland & Knight is a global law firm with more than 2,200 lawyers and other professionals in 35 offices throughout the world. The Firm’s lawyers provide representation in litigation, business, real estate and governmental law. Interdisciplinary practice groups and industry-based teams provide clients with efficient access to...

DECODE HEALTH

DECODE HEALTH-Advancing Precision Medicine to Improve Lives

Advancing Precision Medicine to Improve Lives

Current methods of managing healthcare are unsustainable, with chronic disease treatment alone putting a $4 trillion annual strain on the U.S. economy. Healthcare professionals across the board agree that earlier diagnosis, better preventative care, and improved disease management will significantly reduce those costs while improving the lives of millions of...

CAPITOL VIEW DENTAL

DENTISTRY WITH A CLASSICAL TOUCH, WHERE NASHVILLE COMES TO SMILE!

When I started college in 2005 at Indiana University, if you would have told me I’d be opening the first black owned dental practice in the North Gulch in Nashville by 2025, I would have been totally shocked. I would be trying to figure out how a musician studying classical...

BOS FRAMEWORK

BUSINESS-LED SOFTWARE MODERNIZATION

Where AI and Automation Driven Software Development Delivers Predictable Modernization Outcomes: Fast, Secure, Simple Business-Led Modernization (Why + What) | Framework-Driven Delivery (How) Every tech-enabled business reaches a point where technology can no longer keep pace with its ambition. Systems once built to accelerate growth start creating friction, rigidity, and...

RACHEL + WINFREE

In a data-driven economy, being able to use your data to make better decisions, develop better products, or better target your customer are skills that will separate businesses that thrive from those that fail

Small businesses make up 99.9% of all companies in the United States. Within a year, 20% of new small businesses fail. That number rises to 30% before the end of the second year. After five years, half of those small businesses have failed. Profits only start trickling in after 18...

QUORE

QUORE

Is a hospitality technology company dedicated to revolutionizing how hotels operate worldwide

During your last hotel stay, if your room was clean, the in-room appliances were fully functioning and your request for extra towels was addressed quickly then that hotel was probably using Quore. Our cloud-based operations app supports hotel staff in their day-to-day for better guest experiences, which means smarter teams...

MINDFUL

MINDFUL-Add kindness to your tech stack

Add kindness to your tech stack.

Revitalizing a 25-year-old software company is no small task, but can be a pathway towards innovation and compelling value creation for employees, customers, and investors. That’s the story of Mindful, a contact center software company that relocated to Nashville in 2018, which was acquired by Medallia in 2022 after an...

CATWALK CONSULTING

GROUNDED IN RESEARCH, EXPERIENCE AND CULTURAL FLUENCY

Catwalk Consulting Group is a strategic marketing and communications firm specializing in the entertainment industry. We are known for innovative, future-focused approaches to positioning artists, executives, brands and organizations for what’s next. Our work centers on customized positioning and intentional audience development designed to elevate visibility, relevance and long-term impact....

Nashville State Community College

From Classroom to Career: Nashville State Powers Progress Through Education and Partnerships

A Good Fit. A Great Future. That’s how Nashville State Community College defines itself—serving diverse students from Nashville’s urban core to rural counties, each bringing unique backgrounds and experiences. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to how Nashville State serves its students and communities. In fact, with Vision 2030 – its...

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

The Vanderbilt Vaccine Center -Improving human health through next-generation antibody science

The Vanderbilt Vaccine Center (VVC) was founded in 2004, with James E. Crowe, Jr, M.D. as director. The mission of this internationally recognized biomedical research and development team is to transform infectious disease prevention approaches using instant immunity achieved by use of naturally occurring molecules form the human immune system...

THE WONDRY

THE WONDRY

From Innovation Ambition to Innovation Capacity- The Wond’ry Anchors a Vibrant University Innovation Ecosystem

The Wond’ry, Vanderbilt University’s center for innovation, serves as a catalyst for efforts to build and strengthen innovation capacity in the region. The Wond’ry provides space, mentorship, programming and other resources designed to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration among students, faculty, staff, and alumni from across all parts of Vanderbilt and from...

MOTUS DRIVE

PRACTICAL MOBILITY SOLUTIONS

Motus Drive was founded by Ferhan Jemal after seeing firsthand the challenges his uncle faced due to limited mobility and the high costs associated with powered wheelchairs. Motivated by this experience, Ferhan spent eight years studying the wheelchair market, talking with industry experts, prototyping, and gathering direct feedback from wheelchair...

Holland & Knight

Service Without Boundaries

Founded in 1889, Holland & Knight is a global law firm with more than 2,200 lawyers and other professionals in 35 offices throughout the world. The Firm’s lawyers provide representation in litigation, business, real estate and governmental law. Interdisciplinary practice groups and industry-based teams provide clients with efficient access to...

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The Publisher

Glen Edwards

Glen Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University and served in the United States Marine Corps Services. For the next 10 years, Glen worked as a Juvenile Probation Officer in Philadelphia, counseling underprivileged children in North and West Philadelphia. In 1983, Glen left the court and went to work... click to read more

The Publisher

Glen Edwards

Glen Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University and served in the United States Marine Corps Services. For the next 10 years, Glen worked as a Juvenile Probation Officer in Philadelphia, counseling underprivileged children in North and West Philadelphia. In 1983, Glen left the court and went to work... click to read more

Other Ecosystems