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 has spent years bringing Smith County together around causes that
matter. Through a partnership with TCRI, the organization gained new tools to share
its story, expand its reach, and highlight the impact of the local nonprofits and
volunteers helping strengthen the community.
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.
Amanda Kail and Cassidy Phillips are 
2018 Tennessee Tech graduates who started a branding company in Cookeville. Since September
of that year they have worked with over 30 clients and positioned themselves as experts
in their field.
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.