RECAP: Our favorite moments from the PYA Ballard Innovation Award
The annual pitch competition featured six of the most influential innovators in the East Tennessee region. For the first time, a Chattanooga-based company took the top prize.
PYA, a nationally recognized professional services firm and publisher of teknovation.biz, hosted the 5th Annual PYA Ballard Innovation Award on Wednesday, April 16. The competition featured the largest combined cash and in-kind services prize available to entrepreneurs in East Tennessee. The top innovator left with a prize of $50,000 in cash and in-kind services.
“The PYA Ballard Innovation Award has provided $325,000 over five years to more than a dozen worthy start-ups,” said PYA President and CEO Marty Brown. “We know a healthy entrepreneurial community brings innovation, jobs, and growth, so we’re honored to invigorate our economy by helping new companies thrive.”
Six early-stage companies, three already with venture capital backing, pitched on stage to a room packed with established business leaders, investors, and community members.
The participating founders and companies were Fela Akinse, founder of Salubata, Dustin Bainbridge founder of Unified Track, Kay Baker founder of Green Llama, Daniel Lee, founder of Perseus Materials, Marc Finch, founder of PreTel, and Charles Brandon, the founder of Blank Beauty.
The judging panel for the award ceremony was comprised of the “cream of the crop” in Knoxville’s business community. It included Patricia Bible (KaTom), Pierce LaMacchia (KBrew), Shannon Harper (Harper Auto), Cynthia Gibson (Bush Brothers & Co), and Billy Carroll (Smart Bank).
The judges selected PreTel as the first-place winner for the 2025 PYA Ballard Innovation Award, receiving a grand prize of $50,000 in cash and in-kind services from PYA.
PreTel: First Place
PreTel is an early-stage medical device company that has recently completed prospective clinical studies of their prototype device. Founded by Dr. Roger Young and Marc Finch, PreTel is licensing a patented and wearable pregnancy sensor developed by Young while on medical staff at the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF).
“It’s extremely important in women’s health,” Finch said. “It’s a very underfunded area, especially by venture capital. This award creates great visibility here in the Southeast and helps us raise the capital we need.”
The pregnancy sensor can help diagnose preterm labor and allow for critical intervention and treatment of the baby to avoid death, respiratory distress syndrome, brain hemorrhage and other developmental issues.
The judges were specifically drawn to the company, due to its ability to provide lifesaving care to women and their babies across the United States. To date, the company has secured more than $300,000 in grants for clinical trials and product development.
The judges selected Unified Track as the second-place winner for the 2025 PYA Ballard Innovation Award, receiving $10,000 of In-Kind Strategy Support from PYA.
Unified Track: Second Place
Unified Track is an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven software platform that uses predictive analytics to identify which students are on track and which are at risk of falling behind. The system consolidates messy data, such as grades, attendance, test scores, and GPA calculations, into a user-friendly platform for schools, parents, and students.
One of the biggest issues the founder, Dustin Bainbridge, aims to address is classroom placement. Students often enroll in the wrong courses, causing headaches for schools trying to fix the problem. His platform is already being piloted in schools across the state of California, and his next step is to do the same in Tennessee.
Unified Track is a portfolio company of Knoxville’s newest venture capital firm: Market Square Ventures.
Blank Beauty: Third Place
The judges selected Blank Beauty as the second-place winner for the 2025 PYA Ballard Innovation Award, receiving $5,000 of In-Kind Strategy Support from PYA.
Blank Beauty is automating the manufacturing process of custom cosmetics. The company has developed a robotic system capable of mixing primary colors to create thousands of custom colors. Currently those robots are available in select Walmart locations. Currently, the company’s focus is on nail polish, but the Founder, Charles Brandon, has ambitions beyond the multi-billion-dollar nail industry.
Right now, Blank Beauty is modifying their robot “Huey” to produce thousands of online orders by directly syncing with Shopify. If successful, Brandon said Knoxville will become one of the largest distributors of nail polish in the country.
Blank Beauty has also recently received investment from EPSON and IPM.
What the award is about
The award is named in honor of Tom Ballard, PYA’s Chief Alliance Officer and a cornerstone of the Knoxville startup ecosystem. For decades, Tom has championed entrepreneurship across the region. He also serves as publisher of Teknovation, a PYA-publication that promotes innovation, economic development, and entrepreneurial success across East Tennessee.
“It’s more than just my name on the award,” Ballard said. “It’s about honoring what’s going on in this community and the culture that PYA lives by. A culture of helping people, not just doing business.”
The PYA Ballard Innovation Award has a track record of selecting, supporting, and rewarding successful founders and regional startups.
The 2024 winner, Andrew Hanna of Safire has since secured over $5 million in new Department of Defense contracts, raised an additional $8M in new financing, and grew his team to 11 full-time employees… recruiting scientists and engineers from coast to coast to relocate to Knoxville, Tennessee.
The second-place winner in 2024, David Murray with Statheros, experienced what he called a “life-changing acquisition” – a deal he directly attributes to the exposure from the Ballard Award.
And the third-place 2024 winner, Whisper Aero opened a new test flight center in Crossville, landed a NASA contract, and closed a $32 million series A fundraise.
Watch WBIR story of the 2025 Ballard Innovation Award.
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