Community Stories

Dayton Tech Guide Goes to Washington

June 13, 2016

Friday, June 10th, Dayton Tech Guide spent a marathon day in the nation’s capital hearing best practices from startup communities around the world and then watched as 45+ global startups pitched for cash and venture funding. 

It was all part of the 1776 Challenge Cup, a worldwide tournament for the most promising, world-changing startups to win cash prizes, make international connections and share their vision on a global stage.

The global finals last week was the culmination of a global search for startups disrupting heavily regulated industries. Dayton Tech Guide first experienced #1776Challenge in Cincinnati, one of the local competition sites in November.

Leading up to the pitch competition finals, 1776 held a “Startup Communities & Investment Forum” at their Crystal City campus where startup community leaders got the opportunity to hear best practices from across the globe. The forum was educational and inspirational. 

All startup communities have problems they are addressing to move the needle in their community. The problems we have in Dayton, Ohio are no where near as difficult as some of the communities discussed at the form. Communities like: Iraq, Islamabad, or Cairo. 

Other key takeaways from the event included:

• Communities that make it are built on a give first, get second mentality.
• A startup community requires three things: Customers–Mentoring–Community
• The next wave of startup communities will be bound digitally, not geographically.
• Every city needs an entrepreneurial hub, but the hub cannot live in isolation.
• Creating a strong community will take time.
• Focus on startups…but go beyond them. Corporations need to be involved in the startup community.
• Communities need to be at the forefront of technological change.
• The next wave of the digital revolution won’t be dating apps. It will be tackling big problems–healthcare, education, etc
• 1776 highlights many more outstanding points in their “Innovation That Matters” report.

After the forum, attendees were bused across town to the Lincoln Theatre to hear from 8 startups who had advanced to the finals earlier in the week. The finalists included

1. The $50,000 Winner: MUrgency (Dubai) MUrgency is using the power of mobile technology and networks to create one seamless global emergency response network that will democratize emergency response. The company mission is to make emergency response available to anyone, anytime, anywhere — with just one tap on a mobile phone.
2. $25,000 Runner-up: Prima Temp (Boulder) Prima-Temp has revolutionized continuous temperature sensing with its personal fertility sensor that continuously tracks a woman’s core body temperature and detects the subtle changes that occur before ovulation. Effortless, precise, discrete, and cost effective, Prima-Temp empowers women to take control of their fertility.
3. $25,000 Runner-up: Shippify (Brazil) Shippify is the operating system for on-demand logistics. As an application programming interface and channel to connect the internet with an efficient community of validated shippers, Shippify wants to be the fastest-growing company in on-demand logistics in Latin American and also become the PayPal for delivery in any e-commerce market.
4. $25,000 Runner-up: Toast (Singapore) Toast is a money transfer and bill payment application for unbanked and banked migrant workers on Web and Android. Toast makes it easy to deposit and send funds back to the Philippines from Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UK.
5. $10,000 Runner-up: Convexum (Telaviv) Convexum is a pioneering cyber company for physical security problems, focusing on commercial drones. The company tackles the problem of uncontrolled or malicious use of commercial drones near or over secured perimeters and protects these areas from various threats such as espionage, airborne chaos and public disorder, smuggling, and airwave rights violations.
6. $10,000 Runner-up: E4 Technologies, Cowlar (Islamabad) E4 Technologies is a studio with a passion for developing cutting-edge technology to create profitable gadgets for its customers. Its latest product is a Fitbit for cows, COWLAR, which helps farmers improve dairy herd health, optimize operations, and boost milk yields.
7. $10,000 Runner-up: My Peegu (Bangalore) MyPeegu combines psychology and technology by mapping the behaviors of students.
8. $10,000 Runner-up: NoAppFee (Portland) Noappfee is a tenant-led generation tool for property management companies. Noappfee.com pulls a renter’s background check then screens it against every vacancy in the state; producing a list of every property they are eligible for in minutes. 

The winner & runners up of the 1776 Challenge Cup.

While the judges deliberated, all 45+ startups gave a 30 second pitch to the audience for their vote. The prize? $10,000. The winner? NoAppFee wowed the crowd in their initial pitch highlight how their product can help an individual customer and used the 30 seconds to get the crowd chanting their company name–and it stuck in their minds when it came to vote.