INSBANK Holds Annual INSBY Awards Reception at the Entrepreneur Center

INSBANK recently held their 4th Annual Entrepreneur Bash & INSBY Awards on September 5th at The Entrepreneur Center in downtown Nashville. The awards honor local businesses and raise funds for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect entrepreneurs with critical resources to create, launch and grow businesses. Guests purchased tickets to the event and 100% of the proceeds were donated to the Entrepreneur Center.

Guests had dinner and drinks while enjoying the music of the band Brassfield.   INSBANK extends its appreciation to the sponsors who helped make the INSBY Awards a success.  The event’s sponsors were:  Novatech, who provided the 3-D printed trophies, Tennessee Brew Works that provided beer, and Crowe Nashville that made a monetary donation.

This year there were three INSBY award winners recognized for their innovative approaches to their respective industries:  5by5 Agency, FSI, Inc., and Tennessee Brew Works.

INSBANK’s INSBY Awards celebrates the work of local
entrepreneurs in the Nashville community and beyond.

5by5 Agency

5by5, founded by CEO Shannon Litton, is a full service digital and marketing agency, providing brand positioning, creative direction, and web services and serves particular niches in healthcare, non-profits, and sports and entertainment.

Shannon has assembled a very talented team of artists, designers, storytellers, and strategic thinkers, which has been a key factor in the firm experiencing accelerated growth. This trajectory was recently recognized and 5by5 was named to the top 20% of the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America list.

In addition to core business growth, in mid-2017 5by5 expanded their range of services with the acquisition of Sightline Research, a market research firm led by Mark McPeak and later in the year opened an office in Dallas.

FSI, Inc.

FSi is a niche supply and fulfillment business that provides procurement, assembly, and shipping services for a variety of clients. In 2013, Virginia Lodge was hired as CEO of the company in a strategic move orchestrated by a private equity company that had controlling ownership.  Virginia joined Brian Hadfield, who had been with the company since 2009.  With Brian’s sales and operational skills alongside Virginia’s leadership and networking abilities, they succeeded in growing FSi’s annual revenues an average of 21% each of the next 5 years.  Virginia and Brian had a vision for the company’s growth and in 2016 negotiated and completed a management buyout with the assistance of INSBANK. Upon acquiring controlling interest, they embarked on two ambitious projects to re-locate and upgrade their warehouse facility to a new warehouse space in LaVergne, and even more daunting, upgrade and seamlessly converting thousands of customer SKU’s into a new inventory management software system.

Tennessee Brew Works

Tennessee Brew Works produces craft beer in its brewery, taproom, and filling station located in Nashville and distributes its beer in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. It aims to highlight Tennessee’s tradition and culture while supporting the local community, especially its farmers, and using one of the greenest brewing methods in the region to support quality and sustainability.

Co-founder and CEO Christian Spears’ background in finance at Lehman Brothers, Barclays, and BlackHawk helped attract a variety of investors and a Board of Directors to invest in a top-notch brew system that could significantly scale as has proven necessary in the industry.

The Brewery and its head brewer, Matt Simpson have proven quite successful in both the quality of its beer – recently being named the #2 best brewery in the South by Southern Living magazine – and accordingly in its sales – barrels sold each year are rising rapidly as annual consumption is now over 1.5 million pints, averaging 52% annual barrel growth and 55% annual revenue growth.

And with a culture of innovation and quality, their taproom food service is now getting its own accolades, recently featured on the Travel Channel’s Food Paradise.

Charcuterie Board served at Tennessee Brew Works.

Committed to Helping Local Businesses

INSBANK is committed to helping businesses grow by being a trusted financial partner and staying true to our motto, that INSBANK is “Where Genuine Matters.”