The 2026 NEXT Awards Finalists
Meet the 2026 NEXT Awards finalists: 24 Middle Tennessee companies, and what this class says about who is building in Nashville.
NEXT Awards
Two Founders, a Governor, and a Janky Prototype at the McWhorter Circle Legacy Celebration
Mark Norton was stuck. He and his best friend had both quit good jobs — one at Apple, one practicing law — to build a diabetes management platform in Nashville....
The Entrepreneurs’ Hall of Fame Class of 2026: Three Founding Teams Who Built the Bank, the Buildings, and the Restaurants
It was October 1999. AmSouth had just acquired First American National, the $20B Nashville-headquartered bank where Rob McCabe was Vice Chairman and Terry Turner ran the General Bank. McCabe and...
Mark Deutschmann Built Neighborhoods Before Anyone Wanted Them
In 1993, Mark Deutschmann went door to door with flyers in Belmont. “I’ve already sold 40 homes, and yours could be next.” He had a hunch about Nashville neighborhoods nobody...
At 90, Rosetta Miller-Perry Is Still Building Nashville
Rosetta Miller-Perry stood on stage at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center on October 20 and made an announcement. She’s building an apartment complex on Jefferson Street. Not for low-income residents—that’s her...
2025 Financial Services NEXT Awards Finalists
STARTUP FINALISTS Contractor Financial Services, LLC Angie Huddleston ContractorFinancialServices.net Contractor Financial Services (CFS) helps construction contractors, trades, and real estate developers gain financial clarity and control so they can grow...
2025 Real Estate & Construction NEXT Awards Finalists
STARTUP FINALISTS CRE615, LLC Alexa Barnett CRE615.com Founded in Nashville, CRE615 is a networking and educational platform built for commercial real estate professionals. With more than 2,000 members, the organization...
2025 Products & Services NEXT Awards Finalists
STARTUP FINALISTS A ROZE AFFAIR LLC Joshua Maldonado & Jian Maldonado ARozeAffair.com A ROZE AFFAIR is a strategic events agency specializing in integrated communications, project management, and event production. Founded...
2025 Music, Sports, Gaming, & Entertainment NEXT Awards Finalists
STARTUP FINALISTS Brandwood Global, Inc. Stephanie Weier & Todd Bulgarino BrandwoodGlobal.com Brandwood Global, Inc. is the company behind Brandingo, a proprietary technology that uses a “silent audio QR watermark” to...