More than 70 founders from Rural Colorado applied to the Startup Colorado Pitch Competition at West Slope Startup Week. We saw applications across industries and regions—east to west; tech to outdoor rec. After a week of careful deliberation, our selection committee narrowed the list down to six founders who will compete for at least $280K in investments on August 21st. Who are they?
Say hello to:
DifferentKind is the experience management leader in oral health, producing data and insights from patients and teams that drive improved outcomes for patients, practices, and payers. Headquartered in Buena Vista, DifferentKind is on a mission to build an industry-defining tech company in rural Colorado that creates meaningful jobs and opportunities for our mountain community.
AnywhereCam is a startup from Fort Morgan, CO that specializes in the surveillance of remote locations. We make solar-powered surveillance cameras that use 4G cellular to connect to the internet. These rugged, weatherproof cameras can operate self-sufficiently virtually anywhere as long as there is a little bit of sunlight and cellular signal. AnywhereCam saves its customers the expense of running hardwired power and internet to remote locations, and we save people time by allowing them to monitor their property from their phone wherever they happen to be. No power? No Wi-Fi? No problem!
Gnara® is on a mission to help everyone Answer Nature’s Call® — quite literally — with its patented GoFly® zipper technology. The award-winning apparel feature has been recognized as a top innovation of 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Forbes, Women’s Health, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, CNN, Outside, Gear Junkie, Backpacker, Outdoor Retailer, and more. The discreet design has scaled from a dorm room floor to the floor of the largest retailers in North America, revolutionizing bottoms and empowering women to comfortably and confidently explore as they are, without removing important safety gear or exposing skin to the elements (or others!). The GoFly® can be found in Gnara’s flagship Go There™ Pant and Short (and soon, Legging) products online and at retailers across the U.S. and New Zealand, as well as a licensed component in products like Overalls from LIVSN Designs. From hiking to serving on the front lines, Gnara helps people “go” on the go — at work and at play.
Partytrick, Inc. is the operating system for the experience economy. Partytrick offers an end-to-end software platform that powers repeatable events at scale while capturing the data to determine ROI as well as to optimize business operations. We empower people to go online to get offline, fostering community and connection through in-person experiences.
Town Hall Outdoor Co makes purpose-built, durable outdoor apparel for adventurous kids and their families. We want every kid to Love Outside, for the health of themselves, their communities and the planet. We believe in People+Planet+Place, and Town Hall’s ‘place’ is Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where getting your gear dirty is a badge of honor and community is everything.
Finding buyers for patents is a challenging task. ScaleIP was founded to address the difficulties of an overcrowded intellectual property (IP) landscape, where underutilized patents are common. By leveraging proprietary IP transaction data, ScaleIP helps teams save time, unlock new revenue streams, and make informed patent decisions. The platform assists universities, labs, hospitals, and companies with stranded IP in finding high-intent companies and contacts to license, sell, or acquire patents. Unlike traditional patent analytics tools, ScaleIP pioneers the use of intent data to predict who’s actively in the market for IP.
These six founders will pitch to a panel of investors and startup experts at West Slope Startup Week in Durango. This is a LIVE pitch competition with winners selected during the event. You will not want to miss this. Come support these entrepreneurs and see the innovation coming out of Rural Colorado first hand.
RSVP is required. Sign up for the Startup Colorado Pitch Competition on August 21st at 5pm in Durango here.
Thanks to our funders at 14 Founders and the Greater Colorado Venture Fund, we’re proving that Rural Colorado is home to noteworthy, scalable companies.
14 Founders is a venture program investing in student-run startups in the state of Colorado. The program is managed by local Colorado students and is sponsored by Kickstart Fund.
The Greater Colorado Venture Fund is a venture capital fund investing in early-stage startups headquartered across the state of Colorado, outside of the Front Range. They are working to inspire innovation in places formerly overlooked by venture funds.
Our finalists are also competing for an incredible $30,000 in in-kind professional services and $10,000 in cash from Startup Colorado. These invaluable prizes include a comprehensive coding program from Skill Distillery, a complete branding package from Trace Brand Building, legal services from Peach Legal, and direct mentorship from the Startup Colorado Advisor Network.
