Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

The annual “Innov865 Week” comes to a close after Friday’s activities that include a presentation by the winners of “Startup Day” at the weekly meeting of the East Tennessee Economic Council, Devmoot 2024, and the official opening of Knox Walls at Emory Place.

Thursday’s activities included the fourth edition of the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center’s “Raising & Rising” event. Held in the CGI offices, the global IT services company in downtown Knoxville, the event brought together investors, industry experts, and local Knoxville companies that are either on the rise or looking to raise some capital, all under the same roof.

A number of the seven companies that pitched had been previously spotlighted in teknovation.biz. They included TenantText, Modern Day Stay at Home Mom (Modern Day SAHM), Fluffy Friends, and ThinkUp. The other three included a soon-to-publish article on Onrise, the winner of the recent “3686 Pitch Competition”; AllTakes; and Unified Track.

Here’s what we learned during their pitches.

1. About four months ago, Rob Monday and Josh Wright joined forces to solve a problem they both encountered repeatedly in their property management careers: constant text messages from tenants. Their solution is named Charlie. (Click here to learn more about the problem they are addressing in this early September 2024 article in teknovation.biz).
2. Kimberly O’Neal is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Modern Day SAHM. The company is a connector of moms looking for gigs that also allow them to remain at home and companies looking for workers. For a flat rate of $5.95 a month, she has onboarded 500 individual users on the platform. O’Neal also says six companies have joined the site and four more are in the pipeline. You can learn more about Modern Day SAHM in this March 2024 biz article.
3. Douglas Mapp spends a lot of time understanding how different people can improve their cognitive function, also known as brain skills, which are responsible for using their work tools for better communications, productivity, or to tackle unforeseen obstacles in their workplaces. His company is ThinkUp, and Mapp believes that cognitive training for corporate employees can reduce the chances of error similar to how exercise reduces health risks. We spotlighted him in this mid-September 2024 biz article.
4. Recent University of Tennessee, Knoxville graduate Allison Campbell won several student pitch competitions for her then start-up named Fluffy Friends for Children with Chronic Conditions. That included $1,500 in the Spring 2022 edition of the “Vol Court Speaker Series & Pitch Competition” and $5,000 a year earlier in the “Graves Business Plan Competition.” Her start-up is focused on ensuring that youngsters feel safe and secure. To do so, Campbell is in discussions with 26 Children’s Hospitals and is pursuing a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research award through the National Institutes of Health. We spotlighted her effort in this June 2021 biz article.
5. Peyton Wilfrey, who told us before the event that he recently moved to Knoxville, is the Founder of AllTales. He described the start-up as an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, print on demand publisher of the stories that individuals want to share with others. Immediately after the event, he was headed to Nashville for a flight to the West Coast and a wedding of his best friend. For the occasion, the bride and groom had him develop a book sharing their story of meeting and getting married. It also included a number of photos.
6. Dustin Bainbridge, another recent addition to the region, is a previous Founder who has at least one exit. Today, his start-up named Unified Track, is an AI-driven predictive analytics tool for counselors as well as students and their families. His goal is to bring the product to market at the start of 2025.
7. The last presentation came from Kim Quigley and Derrick Furlow Jr., Co-Founders of Onrise, a rapidly growing company focused on the mental healthcare of athletes. Furlow is a former Tennessee Volunteer football player, and Quigley is a longtime Psychiatrist. Their company has relationships with many of the major players’ associations for professional athletes and has a revenue goal of $5.2 million in 2025.

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