Success Stories
Creating Opportunity Across Tennessee
Every project begins with a challenge, an opportunity, or an idea worth exploring.
What happens next is where it gets interesting.
At the Tennessee Center for Rural Innovation (TCRI), we work alongside students, entrepreneurs, businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations to turn ideas into tangible outcomes. Some initiatives launch new ventures. Others strengthen local businesses, improve communities, or open doors that otherwise may not have existed.
Working alongside experienced professionals, students develop brands, build websites, create marketing campaigns, produce videos, and deliver technology solutions that make a real difference.
Each endeavor represents a unique problem, a creative solution, and the impact that can happen when emerging talent and mission-driven organizations work together to help shape the future of Tennessee.
Explore the stories below to see how vision becomes reality, and how collaboration continues to strengthen communities across Tennessee.
- River City Ball
River City Ball has spent years bringing Smith County together around causes that matter.
Discover how a partnership with TCRI helped amplify its story, expand its reach, and celebrate the volunteers and organizations changing lives across the community. Read the full story →
- McMinnville International Cultural Festival
The inaugural McMinnville International Cultural Festival brought the world to Warren County, celebrating diverse cultures while fostering connection, curiosity, and community. Through a partnership with TCRI, the festival received professional branding, marketing materials, a custom website, and digital tools needed to bring that vision to life.
Read the full story to see how collaboration helped launch a new community tradition. Read the full story →
- DOTReady
DOTReady software founder, Tyna Bryan, met with the TCRI and The Biz Foundry to find help in developing her software, and getting her business organized. Read the full story →
- FoxTrot Branding
Amanda Kail and Cassidy Phillips are 2018 Tennessee Tech graduates who started Foxtrot Branding in Cookeville.
Since September of that year they have worked with over 30 clients and positioned themselves as experts in their field. Read the full story →
- Front Porch Mercantile
Joyce Draper opened Front Porch Mercantile just off the square in Gainesboro, Tennessee.
The shop greets citizens and tourists to town with its cheery sign (designed and painted by a TN Tech Art Education student), and boasts vendors and makers for all kinds of gifts as well as flower arrangements. Read the full story →