Nashville start-up Possip captures both prizes in the “LaunchTN Pitch Competition”
By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA
Nothing like a cool $60,000 for a two-hour gig to make you happy.
That’s the result for Possip, the entrant from the Nashville Entrepreneur Center that captured the top prize and $50,000 by winning yesterday’s “LaunchTN Pitch Competition” as well as the “Crowd Favorite Award” which came with an additional $10,000 prize.
The start-up that helps organizations get better, starting with simplified feedback loops to engage and learn from the people that matter most to their success – starting with schools, was one of nine competitors that represented LaunchTN’s Network Partners – six regional entrepreneur centers and three organizations that run statewide mentor programs for entrepreneurs.
Shani Dowell, Possip’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, clearly inspired the judges with the story of the company. It is a parent engagement platform that makes it easy for parents to share feedback with a child’s school.
“Your school chooses the frequency of the survey – but we recommend weekly,” Possip states on its website. “You get surveys on Fridays, asking for your thoughts, praise and feedback. Your child’s school then gets all parent praise and feedback each week – including any follow up requests.”
The other eight participants, in alphabetical order, were:
- C4 Solutions, representing theCO in Jackson. The company is working to create a virtual reality simulated platform to help companies educate and train employees for a specific skill set in a safe, controlled and repetitive environment.
- CPRWrap, a Chattanooga-based start-up that represented CO.LAB. The company is addressing responder hesitation to start administering CPR. To do so, CPRWrap offers a single-use template described as an easy-to-use template with clear, numbered instructions, a built-in, one-way valve breathing barrier, and visual hand placements that gives the victim the best chance that a bystander might have the confidence to give effective, immediate care.
- DOTReady, based in Cookeville and representing The Biz Foundry, is addressing the stress and learning curve that come from the regulations put in place by the Department of Transportation. The solution is described as simple, easy to comply with and totally digital. Instead of companies worrying about successfully navigating an audit without fines, they manage their operations directly in the start-up’s software.
- Healing Innovations, representing Life Science Tennessee, has developed a revolutionary neurorehabilitation device called the Rise&Walk that allows patients and clinicians to experience the benefits of gait training in a way not possible up to now.
- Nth Cycle LLC represents the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council. One of the start-ups in Cohort 2 of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s “Innovation Crossroads” initiative, Nth Cycle is developing a recycling technology to enable a secondary source of rare earth and specialty metals for a sustainable, secure energy future.
- SecondKeys comes out of Memphis’ Epicenter and Start Co. The start-up focuses on maintenance management for residential properties and community associations, using end-to-end ticket tracking, predictive analytics and a service professional network on a modular platform that provides transparency and ease-of-use to property managers, renters and maintenance contractors.
- StoragePug, represent the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, helps self-storage facilities raise their visibility and attract customers with marketing and web tools built specifically for the industry.
- Uffizzi, powered by Bunker Labs, is described as “space to create, room to grow, and the world’s stage to launch your app to a large and growing audience. It’s time for the world to see what you’ve been working on.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ll have a roundup article on the “36|86 Entrepreneurship Festival” in Tuesday edition of teknovation.biz.)
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