INNOVATE® Nashville

A construction supervisor reviews jobsite footage delivered remotely by an onsite robot. In a rural hospital, a patient’s MRI is uploaded to an online portal, where a specialist on the other side of the country reviews it. An aviation breakthrough gains patent protection to power the next generation of supersonic...

S3 Recycling Solutions provides businesses with a hassle-free way to responsibly and safely manage their excess electronics. Headquartered in Springfield, Tenn., with a new location in California, S3 is an award-winning, R2v3-certified technology recycling firm that provides tailored e-waste solutions to customers across North America. S3’s core business is to...

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...

Gresham Smith, a leading architecture, engineering, design and consulting firm that has called Nashville home for more than 50 years, is an industry leader in innovation. At Gresham Smith, innovation is not just about adopting emerging technologies—it’s about transforming the design and planning process to create healthier, more connected communities....

In a small office tucked away in East Nashville’s Five Points neighborhood, Snapshot’s modest beginnings started as a video production company. At the time, Nashville had plenty of production houses producing great video, and a handful of large agencies infusing strategy into high-budget campaigns. But our founders saw a gap...

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...

In a city known for breakout artists and bold founders, Mark Cleveland is building something less obvious but no less revolutionary. Through his Parallel Entrepreneur brand – anchored by a podcast, a growing network, and a forthcoming book – Cleveland is giving voice to a specific kind of business leader:...

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...

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...

The genesis of EvidenceCare came one night while Dr. Brian Fengler was working in the emergency room of Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital in Nashville, and a young woman presented with extreme shortness of breath and fast heart rate. She had a massive blood clot between her heart and lungs. She...

S3 Recycling Solutions is the right choice for businesses looking for an easy and hassle-free way to responsibly and safely manage excess electronics. Headquartered in Springfield, Tenn., S3 is an award-winning, R2-certified technology recycling firm that provides tailored e-waste solutions to businesses across the nation and in Canada. Since 2007,...

The Brock Family Center for Applied Innovation was established at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2023 through a $10 million gift from the Brock family, including John F. Brock III, his wife, Mary, and their three adult children – Rebecca Brock Dixon, John F. Brock IV and Major Brock. The...

When HCA Healthcare was founded in 1968, we set out to be a different kind of healthcare system. We strived to harness the combined expertise and resources of multiple hospitals to help our frontline caregivers provide high-quality, patient-focused care in a way no single hospital could do alone. Today, that...

If you’re serious about building a startup in Nashville, meet your secret weapon: the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (EC). Founded in 2010, EC is a nonprofit built by business leaders to be—literally—Nashville’s “home to entrepreneurship.” What sets it apart? It’s not just talk: EC has helped over 14,000 entrepreneurs, including more...

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...

“Relationship-centered real estate, valuing people over profit, and inspiring others to do the same” – this was the vision of Founder and CEO Charlie Peterson when launching Tyler York Real Estate Brokers at the beginning of 2018. After a meteoric rise in Nashville real estate beginning in 2013, Charlie quickly...

In the historic Factory at Franklin, just outside of Nashville, a new kind of business environment is quietly transforming the way local founders, executives, and creatives work. Harbor+ Union is more than a co-working space. It’s a purpose-built ecosystem designed to fuel growth, connection, and innovation among the region’s most...

ANSWERING THE CALL TO HEALFor as long as I can remember, medicine has been a special calling for me. And nearly as long, I realized my passion for healing was through dermatology. This was a gift that I inherited from my father, Frederick David Curcio, III, M.D. He knew that...

In an era dominated by likes, follows, and infinite scrolls, Justin Gray, founder of Potluck, is betting on a different future—one where social technology isn’t about building an audience, but about deepening real-life connections with the people we actually see: our friends, families, neighbors, and coworkers. Potluck is more than...

Adventure Science Center connects learners of all ages to the science that surrounds them every day, fostering enthusiasm for discovery and exploration. This year Adventure Science Center marks 80 years of serving the Nashville community, all 95 counties of Tennessee, together with visitors from around the nation and the globe....

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...

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...

It’s all too easy to get swept up in the fervor of “innovation.” In the polished, produced world of prime-time, venture capitalists drop seven figures into start-ups while founders celebrate exits. Like most things that reach a level of celebrity status in our world of “reality” entertainment, the true story...

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...