BusinessTN

20/20 Research Nashville Jim Bryson Founder Bryson is not getting to run the Volunteer State, but he sure knows how to run a company. The recent Republican gubernatorial candidate runs one of the top-rated qualitative research firms, according to the Impulse Survey of Research Facilities. Founded in 1986 as a one-room focus group facility and consultancy, 20/20 Research now employs over 80 employees in three offices (Nashville, Charlotte, N.C., and Miami).

Access America Transport Chattanooga Ted Alling Co-founder This flatbed trucking, brokering and logistics company started by Alling and fellow Samford University graduate Barry Large in 2002 began as an outgrowth of Key James Brick, one of Tennessee's largest brick suppliers (owned by Large's father Jim). Today a nearly $20 million company, its customer base is so diverse that Key represents a mere 3% of current traffic. The company is developing LTL and next-day small packaging services, which offer a higher rate of return.

Ameri Care Services Murfreesboro Tom Swett Owner & president Started in 1993 with one truck, this termite & pest control company now has a customer client base of over 30,000 homeowners and businesses, making it the largest locally owned and operated pest control provider in Rutherford County (40% market share), which is one of America's fastest-growing counties. The company has diversified into moisture management solutions.

American Contractors Exam Services Nashville Chris Prince Owner & president Each state has its own separate requirements for getting licensed to do construction and development. The 15-year-old ACES, which was founded in West Virginia under different ownership but is now headquartered in Nashville, helps contractors pass state license exams whether they be general commercial and residential building, electrical, HVAC, plumbing or business law state exams—well over 30,000 clients to date. It does so via online training, on-site classes and seminars, including training centers in 18 states stretching from Virginia to Arizona.

Asurion Nashville Bret Comolli CEO The world's largest provider of services (handset insurance, mobile applications, roadside assistance, etc.) to wireless carriers and their subscribers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, Office Depot, Target, etc.), Asurion relocated to Tennessee in 2003. At that time, it served 10 million subscribers with 1,200 employees (600 in Tennessee). Today, Asurion boasts 60 million subscribers and 5,000 employees, nearly half in Middle Tennessee. Growth over the last decade would place Asurion among the top 1% of fastest-growing public companies.

Auto2auto.com Columbia Ben Freeland CEO Third-generation auto dealer Freeland sold off most of his family's physical auto dealerships to pioneer risk-free virtual car shopping. On his site, consumers can shop, finance and complete a purchase, a trend consumers are increasingly comfortable doing. Freeland recently relocated the business from Florida to Maury County. The entrepreneur, whose idea draws inspiration equally from Michael Dell and Fred Smith, expects to one day move as many as 5,000 used cars per month through his facility.

Bar-B-Cutie Franchise Systems Brentwood Ronnie McFarland CEO The BBQ restaurant segment is ripe for a national leader. Bar-B-Cutie opened in 1950 using $2,500 in private funds and is now a 138-employee company under third generation family ownership. Growth is coming through aggressive franchising and a smaller store footprint, allowing for more locations. Recent announcements include locations in Spain, BBQ Mecca Memphis, and at 55 Dallas area addresses. The McFarlands, including COO Brett McFarland, have grown the company over 300% since 2005.

Bell & Associates Construction Brentwood Keith Pyle President & partner Among Tennessee's most high-profile general contractors, behind such Tennessee landmarks as the "Batman" building in downtown Nashville and the Neyland Stadium expansion in Knoxville, this $274 million revenue company is currently working on the state's two largest contracts, the Morgan County Correctional Facility and SmartFix 40 in Knoxville. Working in a majority of Southeastern states, Bell's growth rate from 2005 to 2006 was 84%, dwarfing the industry average of 6-10%.

Cogent Healthcare Nashville Gene Fleming CEO According to a recent Washington Post article, "despite resistance from primary care physicians and fears that the development could erode continuity of care," the ranks of hospitalist—physicians whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients—"have exploded" from a few hundred in 1997 to 20,000 today. Cogent, which relocated from California to Nashville earlier this year, provides hospitalist programs in 16 states and has averaged 35% annual growth since 2003.

Crown Laboratories Johnson City Jeff Bedard CEO Who knew one of the most effective sunscreens on the market hails from the hills of Appalachia? Crown, a developer and manufacturer of niche pharmaceutical products, has grown nearly 200% since 2005 (an average 75% annual growth rate since 2004, in an industry where the average is 8%). The company's most well-recognized product, Blue Lizard Australian Suncream, is now the official sunscreen of the Boston Red Sox spring training season and Bristol Motor Speedway.

Cybera Franklin Cliff Duffey Chairman, CEO & president Cybera provides high-speed, private data networks and networking solutions for multi-site enterprises in the retail, restaurant, convenience store/petroleum, health care and financial services industries. Co-founders Duffey and Tom Spear self-funded the company for an extended period with the help of a few angel investors. In 2006, the now 90-employee company welcomed a localand national venture capital investment and relocated to Franklin.

Davidson Hotel Co. Memphis John Belden President & CEO Davidson is the tenth largest independent hotel management company in the U.S. Initial growth was fostered through the ownership and management of small, mid-scale hotels in the Southeast, but it was a shift to upscale hotels and a well-trained eye toward renovating, re-branding and repositioning properties that made Davidson an industry power player. The company now operates hotels nationwide under nearly every major flagship, including Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton and Radisson, among others. Over roughly the last 18 months, Davidson has added 11 new management contracts (the most recent being the University of Florida Conference Center in Gainesville) and 11 renovations valued at $72.3 million.

DBI Beverage La Vergne David Ingram CEO Ingram is rolling up the barrel, so to speak. His beer distributorship business, a sister company to Ingram Entertainment, the mammoth DVD and video game distributor he spun off from his family's holdings in 1997, is gobbling up other distributorships nationally, most recently Sacramento, Calif.'s Mesa Beverage (annual revenues—$75 million). Ingram entered the small fraternity of beer distributors nationally via his 2002 purchase of Crown Distributing in Memphis. In his lifetime, the number of distributorships could easily shrink from 1,500 to 100.

Diversified Trust Co. Memphis Samuel N. Graham President & COO Founded in 1994, the company's initial focus was serving the financial needs of its founders and their immediate circle of close acquaintances. Today, DTC is a $17.2 million revenue comprehensive wealth management company with over $2.7 billion in client assets and offices in Memphis, Nashville and Atlanta. Based on state documents, DTC is the largest privately owned independent trust company in Tennessee. Co-founder Bill Spitz is the long-time Vice Chancellor for Investments at Vanderbilt University who presided over a ten-fold increase in the university's endowment from $300 million to almost $3 billion. Recent legislation in Tennessee has made it even more favorable to use a Tennessee trust company for estate planning.

echomusic Nashville Mark Montgomery CEO Using the Web as a central hub, echomusic builds relationships between fans and the creators of the things they love. Stars like Keith Urban, Kelly Clarkson and Dierks Bentley utilize echo's interactive brand-building services to expand their Web presence and foster connections with fans. The company's patent-pending echotools technology mines consumer data and manages consumer relationships. echo generated revenues of $4 million in 2006 and projected more than twice that in 2007.

Educational Outfitters Chattanooga Jamey Elrod Founder & CEO A growing number of school districts are adopting dress codes and implementing school uniform policies. All the better for EO. The nation's first school uniform franchise, EO also has a savvy relationship with industry giant Office Depot to house stores within stores. Growth is also coming through complementary divisions including customized corporate apparel, sports-related gear and branded apparel for fundraising groups.

Educational Services of America Nashville Mark Claypool President & CEO In a day and age of rampant drop-out and failure rates and rising cases of autism, ESA offers cost-effective educational programming to cash-strapped school districts that have cut in-house special ed programs from their budgets in recent years. Fast expanding and profitable, ESA operates private and charter schools, hiring teachers and setting curriculum for its thousands of learning disabled students and students with developmental and behavioral problems in 17 states.

eMids Technologies Nashville Saurabh Sinha President Founded in the Silicon Valley in 1999 and relocated to Nashville in 2004, eMids (with support offices in Bangalore, India) offers IT and business process outsourcing services—including application development/maintenance, quality assurance and health care claims adjudication—to Fortune 2000 companies. As health care companies in Nashville and elsewhere increasingly seek new strategies for IT and business process outsourcing, more growth seems likely.

EMJ Corp. Chattanooga Jim Sattler CEO One of Tennessee's largest general contractors (mainly shopping centers), EMJ was established in 1968, is licensed in 45 states, has over 400 employees, $776 million in annual revenues (headed for over $1 billion) and maintains satellite offices in Boston, Dallas and Sacramento. Growth is coming through specialty fields in addition to retail, like subsidiary Signal Wind Energy, a designer and builder of wind farms, a clean, renewable energy source and growing sector.

Emma Nashville Will Weaver Co-founder This Web-based service co-founded by Clint Smith helps organizations manage e-mail marketing and communications. Originally called Cold Feet Creative, Emma had 25 customers in 2002. Today, it boasts 3,500 customers and about 7,000 accounts across the United States, U.K., Canada and Australia. Organizations using Emma include Gibson Guitar and NPR's Car Talk radio show. The company adds about 200 new accounts a month, and that's without an aggressive outbound sales strategy, which it's now kicking into high gear.

EnerNex Corp. Knoxville Jeffrey Lamoree President Founded in 2003 by Lamoree, Erich Gunther and Robert Zavadil, EnerNex provides electric power research, engineering and consulting services to government, utilities, industry and private institutions. Enernex is also involved in the increased application of renewable energy resources. Considering the desperate need to modernize America's aging electric power grid, EnerNex is poised for more growth. And with energy issues at an all-time high, the market looks good for the company for the foreseeable future.

EnSafe Memphis Phillip G. Coop President & CEO Became one of the largest providers of health and safety consulting services in the Southeast after acquiring Knoxville-based PSC Safety And Health Services—a former BusinessTN Fast 50 company—earlier this year. Founded in 1980, EnSafe also specializes in engineering, environmental and technology consulting services worldwide. The firm's remediation of a Cold War-legacy site in Baku, Azerbaijan, earned the grand award of the statewide engineering professional organization. In less than two years, EnSafe cleaned up massive, decades-old oil contamination in the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, the first major cleanup effort of this legacy oil contamination using state-of-the-art bioremediation and soil-washing technologies, recycling contaminated soil into asphaltic concrete for use as pavement.

EOD Technology Lenoir City Matt Kaye President & CEO Founded in 1987 as a munitions (bombs and bullets) response company, EOD expanded services to include security and mission support services, growing from a $10 million company to a $200 million company due to its work in Iraq. An employee-owned firm and one of Loudon County's largest employers, EOD was one of several companies tabbed to go to Iraq to blow up Saddam Hussein's weapons stockpile following the toppling of his regime. Recently was ranked as the 11th fastest growing small business in the government IT arena by Washington Technology.

Ernst Construction Hendersonville Steve Ernst President Co-founders Steve Ernst, J.R. Ernst and Mark Flick are currently building Indian Lake Village, a mixed-use project bordered by nearby Old Hickory Lake. The company's expansion into Williamson County is projected to contribute a significant percentage of growth to the company over the next year. In addition, business relocations to Nashville bode well for this home builder/remodeler.

Flexial Cookeville Richard Larsen President Manufacturer Flexial's metallic bellows components are in the International Space Station, the world's deepest oil wells and most U.S. electrical power distribution stations. It's developing the first implant mechanism to derive energy from human muscle to drive a heart pump. Currently, the company is engineering components for the new Ares I rocket that will replace the space shuttle and for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle that will carry astronauts to the ISS, the moon and Mars. It will have controls in the Mars Rover.

Formall Andersonville Gerd Krohn Owner & CEO The plastic products maker (kayak seats, golf cart paths) has since Krohn's 1993 purchase grown from a 35-employee, $4 million company to an approximately $45 million company with over 230 employees. A contractor for Florida-based Portable On Demand or PODS units, Krohn co-invented that company's new foldable storage units, which collapse for long distance hauling, capturing a long-term contract with PODS to manufacture the devices.

Gene Burton & Associates Franklin Suzan Logan President & CEO Most of America's 5,000 hospitals were built in the 1960s and 70s and are worn out. The oldest and largest medical equipment and technology planning firm in the United States, Gene Burton & Associates serves health care facilities, architects and contractors on health care construction projects. Founded in 1988 with personal funds from founder Gene D. Burton, the company has planned the medical equipment and/or the technology/communications infrastructure for more than 700 health care construction projects across the country.

Global Industrial Components Woodbury Gerald Toledo Founder After 25 years of sales and operations experience in the standard and specialty fasteners industry, Toledo started GIC in 1994 out of his garage as a small fastener business. Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certified, Toledo is today one of Tennessee's largest distributors of specialty components to the automotive, health care, lawn and garden, marine and energy industries. Products also include castings, gaskets and filters and oils and lubricants. Toledo is a tireless advocate for MBE business growth.

Griffin Technologies Franklin Paul Griffin Founder Former electrical engineer Griffin started his company 15 years ago making adapters for Apple Macintosh computers, making them work on PCs, bringing his electronic know-how, distinctive design sense and innovative approach to the Macintosh community. Today, his company is one of the largest makers of peripheral products for all things Mac, including iPod. A global player in the development of world-class electronics and accessories for PC, gaming, audio, video and iPod, Griffin's name is synonymous with ingenious technological design in his industry.

HometownQuotes Franklin Hunter Ingram CEO Launched in 2003 by two former insurance agents intent on helping consumers comparison shop for insurance and give insurance agents opportunities to expand their businesses, the company has to date assisted more than 700,000 consumers. The online insurance-led generation industry is growing more popular as consumers increasingly turn to the Internet to quickly compare local insurance quotes and make purchases. HometownQuotes also forms strategic alliances with large insurance agencies and national insurance carriers.

Infrastructure Corporation of America Brentwood Howard H. (Butch) Eley CEO State road budgets are tight. State and federal gas taxes aren't keeping up. The federal transportation budget has been slashed. States including Tennessee are pushing toll roads as options. ICA pioneered outsourced management of highways, bridges and transportation asset management. Just seven years old and with over 200 employees working in four states (though not Tennessee), the company recently inked a five-year deal with North Carolina to maintain the interstates around Charlotte.

J.E. Crain & Son Nashville Lewis Rankin CEO Middle Tennessee is booming and this general contractor for commercial, industrial and institutional projects is seizing the opportunity. Nearly 75-year-old J.E. Crain projects include the Belle Meade Town Center, Baha'i of Nashville and Carothers Park Shoppes. It was recently announced as the builder on a new nine-story, 192-room, $20 million Hilton Garden Inn at the site of a former funeral home at Broadway and 18th Street in Nashville. The company recently completed a similar project in SoBro.

Kenco Logistic Services Chattanooga Jim Kennedy III Chairman & owner America's largest family-owned third-party logistics provider delivers complex supply chain solutions to Fortune 500 companies needing warehousing and distribution, transportation, technology, real estate management, and material handling equipment. Founded in 1950 with $25,000 and one warehouse by the fathers of the current owners, Kennedy and Sam Smart Jr., Kenco today is a 3,300-plus employee, $270 million company with over 90 facilities across 22 states and Canada, and over 21 million square feet of distribution space.

Lifeguard Medical Solutions Nashville Harvard Reynolds Co-founder Last July, an 85-year-old man collapsed near the front desk of the Fall Creek Falls Inn at the state park in Bledsoe County. State Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson), a physical therapist at Parkridge Medical Center, was on site and with others saved the man's life using an automated external defibrillator provided by LifeGuard, one of the nation's largest AED providers. Reynolds co-founded the company with Chet Frist in 1999 after Reynolds' father died of sudden cardiac arrest in the home. The availability of on-site cardiac care in public places is becoming the norm. CPR/AED training is another LifeGuard offering, including for corporate clients like the Department of Homeland Security, NASA and Macy's/Bloomingdale's.

Magazines.com Franklin Jay Clarke President & CEO In the late 1990s, the Internet was white hot, "dot-com" meant "millionaire" and the magazine market was uncharted territory begging for a shot in cyberspace. The result: Magazines.com—an online magazine newsstand where customers can subscribe to one or several of about 1,600 magazine titles. With the backing of major investors Anderson Media and Time Inc. and a lucrative, commission-based business model, Magazines.com has grown at a compounded annual rate of more than 70% over the last seven years.

MedSolutions Franklin Curt Thorne CEO This 650-employee company works in concert with health plans to reign in costs associated with radiology or medical imaging services by helping doctors choose appropriate exams and avoid unnecessary, costly procedures. MedSolutions has been growing between 50% and 70% per year over the past six years. As imaging technology continues to improve and correct use remains a cost issue, MedSolutions stands to benefit.

Merit Construction Knoxville Bruce A. Bosse President Now in its 25th year in commercial and industrial construction, the over 100-employee company has annual revenues in excess of $100 million. Initially formed as the open shop subsidiary of a larger construction company, Merit became independent in 1990. One avenue of future growth is its relationship with fellow Hot100 company, Idleaire, for whom Merit has built many new service centers, including ones in Knoxville, Dallas, West Memphis, Ark., The Bronx and Syracuse, N.Y.

Nashville Mixed Martial Arts/Gameness Nashville Shane Messer President Having acquired a stake in the company that trains full-contact fighters and distributes clothing for the martial arts industry, Messer's Incubator Group is lobbying the Tennessee legislature to help promote mixed martial arts events in Tennessee. But the 31-year-old serial entrepreneur (who left the corporate world shortly after being named CIO of Nashville's Aladdin Industries at age 24), also has a hand in real estate, IT and nonprofit ventures here and overseas.

National Print Group Chattanooga Phil Harris CEO The over 50-year-old retail signage specialist counts among its clients Coca-Cola, Target and McKee Foods. It recently made a $12 million investment in what is the largest litho press in North America, a 600,000-pound, 81-inch, seven-color sheet-fed press that required the aid of 35 flat bed trucks to deliver. More recently, the company announced plans to consolidate all eastern U.S operations in Chattanooga.

National Service Associates Knoxville Charles R. West CEO Banks, retail stores, convenience stores, restaurant chains and other companies turn to NSA when they need speedy change in the physical presentation of their image to their customers and vendors. Masters in the art of corporate field services solutions, NSA once completed a 45-day project visiting 10,500 locations across all 50 states to assist Cardtronics—the nation's largest ATM operator—in a re-branding effort. Other clients have included BP, BankOne, Chase Bank and American Express.

NationLink Wireless Franklin Andy Bailey President With special attention to GPS location solutions and RIM BlackBerry applications, along with paging and wireless messaging services, NationLink currently ranks as Tennessee's largest provider and as the 7th largest distributor in its category nationwide. Founded in 1993 with $6,000 from Andy and Nicole Bailey's savings account and the purchase of 100 pagers, NationLink has steadily ridden the technology wave, anticipating new products and constantly evolving to meet its clients' wireless needs.

Navarro Research and Engineering Oak Ridge Susana Navarro-Valenti President & founder The 29th fastest growing Hispanic-owned business in the nation, according to Hispanic Business magazine, Navarro contracts with the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration to provide safety analysis, engineering services, IT and emergency management to government agencies. Navarro has 14 offices, over 300 employees and 23 projects currently, including a $20 million joint venture for solid waste management at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

Nucsafe Oak Ridge Rick Seymour CEO The demand for effective homeland security products will continue for the foreseeable future. Nucsafe, a Department of Defense contractor, designs and makes state-of-the-art radiation detectors and monitors (some backpack-sized) for sniffing out contraband bomb-grade uranium, among other items. The company, with about 100 shareholders, formed in 1999 with a $150,000 private investment.

Onyx Medical Memphis Laraine Gilmore Co-founder & president Amid the rich landscape of orthopedic and musculoskeletal-related companies in the Bluff City is Onyx, founded in 1990 by Gilmore and her husband Roger, who are the makers of thousands of wires, guide pins, half pins, drills and screws purchased by nearly all the world's largest orthopedic companies to assist the orthopedic trauma industry in putting people back together again after traumatic accidents like car wrecks.

Ozburn-Hessey Logistics Brentwood Scott McWilliams CEO Frank Ozburn and Kenneth Hessey started the company in 1951 with less than $10,000, mostly debt. Today the 4,000-employee, $670 million company is one of the largest privately held third party logistics companies in the United States, ranked #46 on the top 50 Global 3PLs list by Armstrong & Associates, as reported in Logistics Management magazine. The provider of supply chain management solutions including international and domestic transportation, warehousing, customs brokerage, freight forwarding, and import and export consulting services, operates over 100 distribution centers serving the food service consolidation, industrial, electronic and high tech, health and beauty, and consumer products industries, among others.

Packaging Services Inc. of Tennessee Greeneville Scott Sallah GM & co-owner Packaging Services' two owners, including Doug McKee, were captains in the Airborne Division at Fort Bragg who wanted to start their own business. Corrugated manufacturing was the third idea they came up with, and the rest is history. The company, founded with $250,000 in private funding, now boasts over $25 million in annual revenues and 125 employees. Their customers are primarily other manufacturing industries.

Paradigm Group Nashville Bob Levy President Group insurance veteran Levy founded Paradigm Group in 1996 and now serves more than 130 employers. Licensed in 48 states, Paradigm Group manages plans covering local and nationally dispersed workforces that encompass 40,000 covered lives. More than $150 million in health care premiums or equivalent is currently under its management. Many employers continue to accept minimal broker/consultant support in an era of shrinking HR staffs and rapidly rising benefits cost. Paradigm Group's key growth strategy is to identify such employers and introduce its expertise and concierge level of service.

Paradigm Productions Memphis Charles T. Gaushell principal & managing partner Founded in 1992 by Gaushell and R. Scott Carter, who were working together at an architectural firm and who shared a strong desire to provide 3-D computer graphics and animation services, Paradigm Productions has steadily progressed as a specialist in marketing services throughout the country for real estate, design, aviation, manufacturing, and institutional clients with an emphasis on marketing services, 3-D illustrations, virtual tours, video production, and interactive multimedia.

PivotHealth Brentwood John Phillips Founder, co-owner & CEO Started in 2003, PivotHealth provides physician practice management services, from looking at billing to customer service to improving patient flow, which often involves providing the CEO/Administrator, CFO, COO (where applicable) and other executive staff to better manage operations and boost financial health. The company is currently in early stage operations of new business lines including patient, provider and employee surveys, coding and compliance services, hospital-physician strategy implementation, and medical group consulting.

Praxis Brentwood David Fox President The fact that U.S. companies surpass all other countries to develop more drugs with tens of billions of dollars spent on R&D alone is good news for Praxis, which should continue to grow as the demand for clinical trials on new drugs increases. A patient recruitment/clinical research studies company, Praxis provides patient profiling and market potential analysis among other services to accelerate the drug development process in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

Prepak Systems Cookeville Robert Allen President & CEO A turnkey custom pharmaceutical packaging and re-packager company, Prepak opened its doors about five years ago with only one contract in a 10,000-square-foot building. Today the company works out of a facility eight times that size that is DEA approved and FDA regulated and which can handle any size complex project. Growth opportunities include exploring the rising pharmaceutical and nutraceutical market demand for powder and liquid packaging services.

Pro2Serve Oak Ridge Barry Goss Founder Founded in 1996, Pro2Serve is a technical and engineering services company predominantly serving the defense industry. Engineering News-Record has named the company among the top U.S. design firms and largest overall designers of manufacturing facilities. The first tenant at the nation's first high-tech park at a national lab, the Oak Ridge Science and Technology Park, Pro2Serve is also heavily involved in local education efforts, including as a partner in a local effort aimed at recruiting skilled science professionals to teach in public schools and to enhance the subject area expertise of current teachers.

PureSafety Nashville William A. Grana Jr. CEO PureSafety launched as a direct result of a fatal accident that occurred in 1998 at Thompson Machinery Commerce Corp., the first and only employee fatality in the company's 60-year history. Management seeded and launched an Internet-based application to more effectively deliver, track, manage and report on its compliance-based safety training initiatives for its eleven locations. About a year later, recognizing the application had broader commercial appeal beyond heavy equipment dealers, Thompson Machinery spun the technology into its own company, PureSafety. Last year PureSafety acquired PerDatum and its Prognos software application.

Quality Industries La Vergne Fred A. Appel President & CEO An aluminum and steel components parts fabricator for large U.S. companies including Peterbilt trucks (a charter account), Quality was founded by Robert Russell 34 years ago. Though Russell is now deceased, his wife and four daughters maintain ownership and direct the company. Under Appel, Quality's revenues have grown over the last five years by nearly 150%, and employment more than doubled to around 550, following a significant recapitalization of the business.

RadiusPoint Memphis Sharon Watkins Founder & CEO Founded in 1986 using $10,000 deriving from a real estate sale, RadiusPoint (formerly TSG Enterprises) uses proprietary software to manage invoices from telecom, wireless or utility providers and ensure on behalf of clients that there are no mistakes or extra charges in the bills. Clients include Cleveland-based Check Into Cash (1,250 locations) and Shelby County Schools. Earlier this year, Watkins set up shop in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, at the World Trade Center to service European clients. The company is also now offering the licensing of its software.

RIVR Media Knoxville Dee Bagwell Haslam CEO Knoxville is the nation's fifth largest cable television production market, largely due to Ross Bagwell Sr., founder of the studios that became both Scripps Howard and RIVR Media. Today, Bagwell's daughter, along with her business partner Rob Lundgren, runs one of America's largest independent production companies, with particular expertise in the reality, how-to, home improvement, lifestyle and documentary genres—all red hot forms of entertainment. Future growth is being fueled by a push into broadband interactive content.

RM Technologies Group Knoxville Paul Sponcia CEO Co-founded by Jimmy Rodefer in 1998, this company has grown 301%, according to Inc. magazine. (Rodefer is the man behind Rodefer Moss & Co, a full-service tax, accounting and business consulting firm located in Knoxville.) Combining Sponcia's knowledge of IT infrastructure, custom applications, and technical communications with Rodefer's knowledge of professional services organizations and consulting, RM Technologies has grown into one of the largest IT infrastructure solutions providers in the region.

Saratoga Technologies Johnson City David Temple President One of America's fastest-growing IT companies, Saratoga has customers of all sizes throughout North America, Europe and Africa. Originated as a subsidiary of Saratoga Software, which is headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, as a software development house for packaged business software, Saratoga now specializes in information and communications technology solutions and has acquired numerous companies since 2001. As large international firms send jobs overseas to cut costs, Saratoga is bringing jobs to the local market.

SeeMore Putter Co. Franklin Jim Grundberg Co-owner Consumers crave the next great golf product to help them lower their handicap. SeeMore Putter's new owners, including Jason Poulliot, had planned to revive the company patiently when they bought it last September. Instead, eight months later, PGA golfer Zach Johnson won the Masters golf tournament using a SeeMore. The repeated closeups of the Tennessee product put the company's revitalization plan into overdrive as they try to leverage all that free publicity.

Selective Structures Athens Marsha Cole Founder Lighted message boards and flip-screen billboards canvass the roadways. Government-funded electronic message boards flash traffic and Amber alerts on highways and bi-ways. Traffic congestion is increasing commute times in America's largest cities. It's all good news for the outdoor advertising industry, and for Cole's business, the nation's largest maker of outdoor support structures.

ShortBarkIndustries Tellico Plains Lisa Held Janke Founder, president & CEO Janke, then a 25-year-old fashion college graduate, founded SBI in 1991, re-starting her deceased father's camouflage clothing manufacturer with eight of his former employees. First-year sales, achieved out of Janke's garage, reached $250,000. In 2002, Janke foresaw the near complete migration of cut-and-sew apparel operations to offshore locations and began seeking out alternative opportunities. She landed her first purchase order for automotive seat covers serving the heavy duty truck market—a product with much better margins—in 2003. Soon, SBI was substantially transformed from apparel to automotive supplier. Today, Janke employs over 350 people, and while a decline in heavy duty truck manufacturing could damper profits, marine, military and Department of Defense growth opportunities are substantial.

Siskind Susser Bland Memphis Greg Siskind Shareholder Legal immigrants have hurdles of their own, and Siskind Susser Bland, one of America's largest and best-known immigration law firms, helps them through the obstacle course of immigration services. With 80% revenue growth since last year, Siskind Susser clients include International Paper, Cirque du Soleil, Prada, Community Health Systems, and the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 2006, the firm acquired the Eric Bland law firm in New York, further expanding its presence in the arts/sports/fashion immigration law arena. If Congress passes immigration reform legislation currently under consideration, it would have a major positive impact on the market for immigration legal services.

Smart Furniture Chattanooga Stephen Culp CEO During a 1995 visit to the Yahoo! corporate digs, Culp decided to rid the world of Dilbert-like office cubes, and thus gave birth to a business that lets people design, order and receive attractive furniture for home or office—all within a five-day span. (The pieces are made in and shipped from Chattanooga, not China.) Capitalizing on 132% annual growth, Culp and company are starting SmartFixture.com.

SMS Holdings Corp. Nashville Keith Wolken CEO Since 1988, this family-run company has grown from one employee to nearly 14,000 within its four subsidiaries. Demand for beefed-up airport safety and streamlined services fueled growth for the housekeeping, security and facility services management company, spurring recent contracts at hubs like Jacksonville and Orlando, along with deals at more than 60 airports around the world. With annual revenue approaching $300 million, the company also plans to expand into the hospitality and health care markets.

Sommet Group Franklin Brian Whitfield Co-founder & managing partner Formed in 2003, this outsourced business services outfit (HR administration, payroll processing, IT consulting, etc.) quietly went about its business until it recently became naming rights partner with the Nashville Predators professional hockey club on Nashville's downtown arena. The constant marketing buzz created through the newly christened Sommet Center, as its name enters the vernacular of Nashvillians attending Preds games and Hannah Montana concerts alike, is expected to yield dividends.

Southern Land Co. Franklin Timothy Downey Founder & CEO SLC has been designing and building distinct communities for two decades, embracing the detail, architecture, horticulture, streetscapes and general character of the best-loved neighborhoods in the United States. Now with well over 300 employees, $100 million in revenues and $1 billion in active projects, the company is expanding into five Texas markets and creating a mortgage company. A slowdown in the housing market could slow SLC's rapid revenue growth.

Spheris Franklin Steven E. Simpson President & CEO With over 6,000 employees (250 local), and over $200 million in revenue, Spheris was recently listed as the 22nd largest health care technology company in the U.S. by Healthcare Informatics magazine. The provider of outsourced medical transcription services and clinical documentation technology to more than 500 health systems, hospitals and group practices nationwide offers 24-hour, 365-days-a-year customer support via 5,500 skilled medical language specialists, including at locations in India.

Staffmark Brentwood David Bartholomew CEO Among the top 25 staffing companies nationally, with operations in nearly 30 states, over 850 employees, and over 250 offices (including 30 stretching across Tennessee), Staffmark gets pigeonholed as an Arkansas company because CEO Bartholomew's financial partners and the company's back office functions are located in Little Rock. However, Bartholomew, the immediate past chairman of the American Staffing Association, is located at the company's corporate offices in Brentwood. An average of 25,000 people per week go to work via Staffmark.

Telesensors Knoxville William Milam President First, there were sensors. Then, in 2003, Milam started making smart sensors, which are low-cost, wireless, and can detect nuclear, chemical and biological agents. Naturally, clients in the business of homeland security, biomedical, automotive and industrial process control are very interested in what his shop produces next.

The Bun Companies Nashville/Dickson Cordia Harrington Founder & CEO President George W. Bush visited "The Bun Lady" Harrington's Nashville operation in July. It's proof of how conspicuous Harrington's business has become. The maker of baked goods (namely sandwich buns) for food chains such as McDonalds is a well-known local entrepreneurial success story, including her roll out of cold storage and transport divisions in recent years. Harrington's latest coups are winning a contract to supply 112 Puerto Rico McDonald's locations and her takeover of dough manufacturing for O'Charley's restaurants through her newest company, Cornerstone.

The Lampo Group Brentwood Dave Ramsey Founder & CEO Radio personality Dave Ramsey has built a multi-media empire around the dispensing of financial advice. Helping people pull themselves up by the financial bootstraps has had a reciprocal effect. Ramsey's Lampo Group now employs around 200 people and has been growing at a rapid clip. That's sure to increase even more in light of Ramsey's new primetime television program on the new FOX Business News cable channel. (See cover story, page 32.)

The Southwestern Co. Nashville Henry Bedford CEO America's oldest direct selling company began giving college students the opportunity to run their own businesses and forge their own life skills as salespeople in 1868. Today, the $264 million company markets family-oriented, educational and reference books and CD-ROMs through a sales force of 3,000 college students each summer from over 400 colleges and universities around the world. Southwestern Investment Services, a corporated business in the Southwestern/Great American family of companies, is also fast growing.

Unarco Material Handling Springfield Gary Slater President Unarco's April purchase of Texas-based KingwayInca-Clymer Material Handling made the company the nation's second largest pallet rack maker—the devices used in warehouses to hold pallets of goods. Around since the 1950s, the company is known for offering the most diverse warehouse storage product line in the industry. Satellite offices are located in Detroit and Chicago.

Unistar-Sparco Computers Millington Soo-Tsong Lim Co-founder & president Founded in 1994 by two Mississippi State students (including Mubashir Cheema) in their dorm room long before the e-commerce boom began, the online IT hardware and software equipment sales company boasts several federal government contracts and an increasing international presence. Doing business as Sparco.com, the company moved to Millington in 2003, smartly setting up shop across the street from Ingram Micro, the world's largest computer distributor.

United Enertech Chattanooga Bill Tate CEO Tate studied his father's engineering schoolbooks until he could recite them verbatim. After graduating from UT-Chattanooga, he started United Air Products. In 1988, he formed United Enertech Corp. and completed his patented personalized control system, Private Aire. United Enertech manufactured this wireless remote-controlled temperature zone control system until the patent was sold. In 1998, Tate sold United Air Products to focus on United Enertech. The manufacturer of HVAC products now employs 100 people.

UT-Batelle Oak Ridge Thom Mason Director While not a typical privately held company, UT-Batelle, manager of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy, is a 50-50 LLC between the University of Tennessee and Batelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio, created in 1999 and headquartered in Tennessee for the sole purpose of managing ORNL. With 4,200 employees and $1.2 billion in revenue (up from $1.02 the previous year and up from $560 million in 2000), it is America's fastest-growing lab. With a business plan focused on nuclear power, bioenergy, climate and high performance computing, the future appears bright.

Vaco Nashville Jerry Bostelman Founder Vaco means "to free oneself from a Master," in Latin. Each of the company's offices, which stretch from Tampa to Los Angeles, is its own LLC run by a stakeholder who is encouraged to creatively run their own office. Recently named the 33rd fastest-growing company in America by Inc. magazine, Vaco is a consulting and executive placement firm serving the finance, accounting, technology and administration fields. Started by UT graduate and Gulf War veteran Bostelman with a $200 investment in software less than five years ago, Vaco is now an over $60 million company. No wonder Ernst & Young named Bostelman an entrepreneur of the year in 2007 for the Alabama/Georgia/Tennessee region. Other founding partners were Brian Waller and Jay Hollomon.

Video Gaming Technologies Smyrna Jon Yarbrough CEO A $185 million designer and manufacturer of casino gaming equipment that leases its machines for a percentage of the revenue to more than 100 facilities in Oklahoma, Texas, California and Mexico, VGT moved its corporate headquarters from South Carolina in 2006. But efforts to relocate more of its operation to Middle Tennessee were thwarted because state law prohibited VGT from producing the software that's incorporated in its gambling devices. Significant engineering investment and new technologies hitting the expanding casino gaming market are expected to fuel future growth.

Vindex Pharmaceuticals Memphis Jeff King President & CEO Founded in 2002, this specialty pharmaceutical company markets branded, prescription pharmaceuticals in the respiratory, women's heath care, and pain management therapeutic areas and currently employs 40 people. Working to become a national pharmaceutical company, Vindex's revenue growth is in the top quartile of peer companies. Growth could come through future strategic partnerships with other companies and/or licensing agreements allowing the company to bring new products and technologies to market, and through internal development of new products.

Vireo Systems Madison Mark Faulkner President We've learned that amino acids are the building blocks of life, but most of us weren't told you can build a business with them, too. Mark Faulkner's Vireo Systems develops specialty amino acids for athletic performance nutrition, such as the compounds contained in Con-Cret, a legal athletic performance enhancement compound. Con-Cret is on the shelves at all GNC retail outlets in the Unites States. The customers of Vireo products are not the only ones getting bulked up. Vireo's revenue forecast predicts strong growth; Faulkner says he has four other products in various stages of development or launch.

Walden Security Chattanooga Amy S. Walden Co-founder, chairman & CEO A Certified Women's Business Enterprise (WBE), and a family business (Walden's husband Michael is a co-founder), Walden's growth is well above industry average and has boosted it from the nation's 33rd largest security company to #24. Now in 16 states, the $33 million revenue, 1,600-employee company provides security guards to commercial, residential and government properties, from gated communities to hospitals.

WireMasters Columbia David C. Hill President & CEO The company was founded in 1998 in Franklin to support the aviation, aerospace and military defense markets with military specification wire, cable, connectors and other parts used in the manufacture of electronic cable controls in planes, missiles, helicopters, tanks, ships, even space shuttles and satellites. Hill exercised an employee buyout of the company in 2001 using $4 million in leveraged asset bank financing. Today, the 80-employee, $39 million-plus company is bidding on the largest defense retrofit in recent history and working to help develop more sophisticated weapons and support devices for the fight against world terrorism.

World Testing Mt. Juliet Robert O'Neal President Founded in 1979 by Vernon L. O'Neal Sr., this subcontractor for construction and engineering firms nationwide tests building materials like structural steel, castings and piping for integrity, compliance with codes and customer specifications in fabrications and welding operations. O'Neal, Sr. passed away in 2002 leaving his two sons, Bob and Vernon L. O'Neal Jr. (corporate secretary) to run the company. Recent clients include Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Stonecrest Hospital and Schermerhorn Symphony Center. World Testing has a Millington satellite office.

Wunderlich Securities Memphis Gary Wunderlich Jr. Founder & CEO This investment business launched in 1996 after Wunderlich and others bought Crisler Tipton & Co., a longtime Memphis entity. Within a few years, the eight-person company, including partner and president Philip Zanone Jr., had expanded to Houston, Chicago and St. Louis. Earlier this year Wunderlich bought Capital Securities of America, expanding to Orlando, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle among other cities. The full-service brokerage firm with $3.5 billion in assets under management also has three New York offices (a total of 160 brokers) and operates other major business lines including private client services, institutional fixed-income trading and investment banking.