Founder Capps began presenting entertainment events in his hometown of Knoxville in 1971. Today, AC Entertainment employs 32 people producing over 500 events a year in over 20 markets. In 2000, with co-creator Superfly Productions, AC launched the Bonnaroo outdoor music festival in Middle Tennessee, selling 70,000 tickets on the Internet without traditional advertising. Today, Bonnaroo is one of the most important and established annual music events in America. The partnership recently purchased the event's Manchester site for a permanent presence.

A third-party based logistics company originally started by Alling and Barry Large as the logistics division of Key-James Brick and Supply (COO Allan Davis is also a partner), AAT quickly moved into both refrigerated and van freight. In 2005, AAT began working with the Department of Defense, hauling everything from M1 Abrams tanks to UH-60 Black Hawks. Today, the company specializes in full truckload, LTL, rail, and heavy haul freight, facilitating the shipping needs between shippers and motor carriers. Despite high fuel costs weighing down the industry as a whole, AAT is growing. LTL and rail have been its fastest-growing divisions in 2008.

A soft economy tends to drive businesses to outsource non-core functions to gain efficiency. Founded in 1987 and run by partners Jay Keegan and Bob Adams, Adams Keegan, with clients in 40 states, is the largest comprehensive employer services firm in the Midsouth. The company has a regional office in Atlanta and has diversified into the staffing and insurance services sectors with subsidiaries Staff Line and The James Group, respectively.

"AIM Global (standing for Asian Import and Manufacturing) is a custom manufacturer and supplier for consumer product companies and retailers, offering custom manufacturing services from concept, development and production to import and delivery. Originally in the business of supplying stationary and gift items manufactured in the Far East to U.S. and German customers, AIM was one of the first 100 western companies to establish a fully owned operation in Hong Kong."

"Use of the Internet for music consumption is growing rapidly. AMC plays music videos on demand but is also a general entertainment destination and community for music fans. Founder Willis, the CEO of Country Music Television during the Gaylord era and a founder of the first company to take video over DSL, calls AMC the record label of the future. Currently among the lower-revenue companies on this list, AMC is expected to leap in revenues in the coming years."

"The worldwide leader in paper 3-D glass production, APO once supplied Sports Illustrated with 6.5 million pairs of specs for its annual swimsuit issue in a mere 40-day production window. Riding the wave of the 3-D boom occurring in the Hollywood movie industry, APO is currently involved in such upcoming events as Monsters vs. Aliens, an Ice Age sequel and Toy Story 3. APO recently produced 40 million pairs for the new Hannah Montana movie. Jerit has come a long way from selling glasses out of his van at civic fireworks shows."

"Aqua-Chem designs and manufactures water purification systems for customers in the military, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, and bottled water markets. The company's water makers make pure, pleasant-tasting water for drinking, and for industrial processes aboard boats, barges, ships, drilling rigs, platforms and other sea borne facilities. Future growth is anticipated in part through developing technology with Oak Ridge National Laboratory."

"Founded in 2002 as the result of collaboration between Perdue and Jason Fisher, Asentinel holds the only A-to-Z United States patent for telecom expense management, limiting competitors' freedom to operate in the industry. The company counts among its clients various Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 companies (and government entities). Optical Invoice Recognition, Asentinel's other technology, intelligently reads paper invoices with near 100% accuracy, limiting the number of employees needed to input invoices."

"Avondale Partners provides investment banking services to middle-market public and private companies and the institutions that invest in those companies; publishes institutionally focused equity research on small- and mid-cap public companies; and provides sales and trading services to institutional investors throughout North America and the U.K. In 2007, Avondale's revenue growth and profits exceeded those of Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America combined."

"Founder Cory, Mike and company VP Grant may own (for now) one of the smallest companies on the Hot100 and among the lower-revenue companies on the list. But their innovative product shows tremendous potential. Builders of custom acoustic guitars for the high-end, boutique guitar market, Batson pioneered (among other innovations) placing the guitar's opening, or sound hole, on the side of the guitar, as opposed to under the strings. At press time, the company was negotiating with a Los Angeles-based guitar company to design a new electric guitar for mass production."

"Benefit Recovery is a health plan cost-containment company in the business of subrogation—checking health plan claims to ensure participants don't ""double-dip,"" or recover claims from other sources while keeping what an employer's health plan paid. More employer-sponsored, self-funded health plans are making the switch to companies like Benefit Recovery to obtain greater recoveries. The company's 32 employees include 11 on-staff attorneys."

"In 2006, the global customer care market was estimated at $300 billion, which included both in-house and outsourced services. BrandonWayne Group provides call centers with recruiting, screening, and staffing programs and services. There were an estimated 56,900 call centers in the U.S. in 2006, employing 3.07 million call agents. Company-owned CallCenterClassifieds.com, launched in late 2007, is a fast-growing job board for call center openings in the U.S. and Canada."

"At the age of 14, Matthew Bulow lost his leg below the knee to cancer. Today, the internationally decorated Paralympic athlete is the co-founder and chief clinical officer for Bulow BioTech, a provider of customized care to amputee patients throughout the country. With fellow Cookeville native and co-founder Dye, Bulow operates in Cookeville, Clarksville and Nashville. Growth is coming from technology, which is increasingly making prosthetics a specialized field (bionic ankles, microprocessor knees) and the growing number of soldiers returning from battlefields around the world as amputees. Bulow recently received funding from Frist Capital, a private investment company investing the assets of the Frist family, (founders of Hospital Corporation of America, Tennessee's largest private company)."

"Cadre5's first customer was E.W. Scripps, for whom it built the content management infrastructure for HGTV, Food Network, DIY and eventually all their newspapers. That caught the eye of Oak Ridge National Lab, which was looking for a team to develop DOE sensor systems. Cadre5 has worked on weigh station sensor systems, seaport sensor systems, homeland security and department of defense sensor projects. The company was contracted by the Pentagon following 9/11 to implement an advanced notification system."

Slipkovich cofounded Capella Healthcare with Tom Anderson in April 2005. The two former execs with rural hospital company Province Healthcare secured $200 million of initial equity funding from private equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner to establish Capella and acquire its first four hospitals from HCA. The hospital operator recently acquired nine acute care hospitals for $315 million from fellow Brentwood-based Community Health Systems. Capella could go public as early as next year.

"Who doesn't struggle to make time in their busy professional life for a visit to the doctor? Imagine taking a half-hour instead of half a day for diagnosis and treatment of what ails you. CareHere specializes in providing on-site health care through employers, making health care easier. Presently, CareHere manages approximately 60 clinics nationwide and is exploring expanding pharmacy offerings, including opening full-service pharmacies for clients."

"CFG is comprised of a diversified portfolio of food service companies. The company formed to preserve and protect independently owned and operated food companies in Tennessee that serve local restaurants and grocery stores. Investments to date include Nashville Egg, Gibson Food Products, century-old Vietti Foods Co. and Memphis-based American Seafood Co., as well as a Nashville packaging plant that previously housed manufacturing operations for Portion Pac, an H.J. Heinz Corp. subsidiary."

"The American public has become quite familiar with TV ads for personal injury attorneys. cj Advertising was launched out of Malham's home as a side business. With the help of his business partners, wife Anne and Jimmy Bewley, cj has become the largest full-service advertising agency in the U.S. exclusively servicing injury attorneys. With over 50 full-time professionals, the agency produces advertising campaigns for 36 law firms in 60-plus markets nationwide, including Hughes & Coleman (with four offices in Middle Tennessee) and John Michael Bailey in Memphis."