ABQid Identifying, Developing Startups

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Congrats to the Winners of Balloon Pitch 2020!

Balloon Pitch 2020 was a huge success with over 140 attendees hearing pitches from ten New Mexico startups. All companies pitched well and answered tough questions from the judges in Q&A, but the following three rose above the rest to claim top prizes.

FIRST PLACE: Parting Stone ($5,000, balloon ride)

SECOND PLACE: GPER G-1 Development Group ($2,500)

THIRD PLACE: Osazda Energy ($1,500)

And, selected as Crowd Favorite by the attendees in the live web meeting: Parting Stone ($200 gift card)!

Congratulations to all our competitors, big thanks to all our investor judges, and huge shoutout to our gold sponsor ROOK ADVISORS as well as our silver sponsors:

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Announcing Competitors & Tickets for Balloon Pitch 2019!

The field is set for an amazing Balloon Pitch 2019! This year’s event, powered by CNM Ingenuity and sponsored by the City of Albuquerque and more, features 8 startups and is being held at Vara Wines on October 3 from 10am-2pm. The event includes pitches with judge Q&A and feedback, as well as coffee, snacks, and a catered networking lunch. One winner will come away with $10k cash for their company and a Mass Ascension flight experience on the first weekend of the  Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, one of our amazing supporters!

Tickets are available now with special early bird pricing. Space is limited!

And now, the competitors:

  1. Adaptive Biomedical Design, offering Sidekick, an assistive technology product that promotes independence for wheelchair users.
  2. EasyFlo, the company with an eco-friendly baby bottle that eliminates the hassle and stress of feeding on the go while preserving our planet
  3. Legacy Concierge, elegantly removing the electronic footprint when a person passes away
  4. Lenties, providing crunchy roasted lentils that are delicious, convenient, cost effective, healthy and sustainable
  5. MS Money Moves, providing a subscription investment analysis service to aspiring investors that provides otherwise out-of-reach expertise and a reduction in time spent on due diligence.
  6. PaintingBots, launching a robotic painting solution initially targeted at commercial operations. The future of painting is robotic.
  7. Perspective Components. Pioneering the world’s smallest mechanical stabilizer for devices and sensors.
  8. Schola, Inc., an online platform that helps match your child to the best school.

Read more about the event on the Balloon Pitch page, our investor judges, and get your tickets to see the pitches, network, and help build the entrepreneurial community!

Amazing Supporters

HUGE thank our amazing supporters helping to #ElevateYourPitch through the Balloon Pitch:

  • City of Albuquerque (Platinum)
  • Clifton Larson Allen (Gold)
  • Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (Gold)
  • Sorenson Capital (Silver)
  • Merrill Lynch Wealth Management (Silver)
  • Assure Services (Silver)

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4 Companies Join ActivateNM Spring 2019 Cohort

Alongside our partners at WESST, we’re excited to announce four new companies who’ve been selected to join ActivateNM as part of the Spring 2019 cohort. ActivateNM is our hybrid startup accelerator-incubator program for early-stage New Mexico based businesses with high-growth potential, which we launched in October 2018. 

The new batch of startups who are joining ActivateNM address problems in a variety of industries, but they share a common feature in that they all offer a software or software-enabled product. Companies selected include,

  • Conversion Plan. Conversion Plan offers a sales tool that increases sales organizations’ conversion rates by analyzing specific and historic opportunity data stored in the organization’s CRM and outputting a conversion plan consisting of action items and deadlines to ensure the deal is won in the forecasted timeframe.
  • Donor Jar. Donor Jar enables political campaigns to connect to donors with aligned values and easily process donations through a website plugin that makes taking donations via debit/credit card simple and also collects important FEC reporting data.
  • Nimble Compensation. Nimble Compensation helps automotive dealerships significantly reduce errors and time spent during the commission calculation process by automating and streamlining the operation.
  • Well Known Corporation. WellKnown Corporation is on a mission to build the world’s best community for creative students to share, learn and grow and offers a knowledge-sharing platform for college students to create and and access helpful content related to the collegiate experience.

ActivateNM kicks off tomorrow, April 3 2019. Over 8 weeks, cohort companies will be guided through immersive workshops with business professionals from around the Albuquerque and New Mexico entrepreneurial ecosystem. Topics we’ll cover include lean startup, customer development, team and organizational development, market definition and segmentation, marketing & sales, corporate and legal issues, fundraising and finance, and pitch coaching & presentation. Cohort companies will also be supported by an extensive network of professional mentors who will provide the diverse support needed to build a successful startup. And remember to mark your calendars for ActivateNM Demo Day on May 24, 2019, 4-5:30pm at WESST Enterprise Center. Follow us on Facebook to stay up-to-date.

Lastly, we’d like to give an update on the companies who joined us for the first ever ActivateNM Cohort in October 2018. While two have graduated and are now part of the broader ActivateNM community, three companies are still participating in the ActivateNM incubator and working on their key growth milestones. Here’s what’s new:

  • CustomCult. Custom Cult graduated the program in March 2019 and is busy refining his customized snowboard production process. They’ve launched a slick new website, which customers can now use to purchase a customized snowboard. Head on over to www.customcult.com and check it out!
  • FruitStand Technology. During the ActivateNM cohort, FruitStand Technology defined their target market through extensive customer discovery, hired a Project Manager, took on new projects with early adopters and most exciting, is to formally launch their managed marketplace in April 2019. Check out https://fruitstand.tech/ to learn how they can help keep your website fresh for years to come!
  • Hangerang. After a lot of hard work refining their product and figuring out who their target customer is during the ActivateNM cohort, Hangerang is busy preparing to launch their platform in mid-April. Hangerang enables local businesses and individuals to share, promote and engage in real-life social experiences with their friends, family, and broader community. Head on over to https://hangerang.us/ to be the first to know when the platform launches!
  • Schedule My Rent. Schedule My Rent graduated the ActivateNM Cohort in March 2019 and is focusing on setting up meetings with investors and looking to scale rapidly over the next couple of months. The company continues to have a steady stream of revenue coming through their property management platform and during the cohort, they also launched a number of differentiated features, including the ability for landlords to receive their rent payments almost immediately, as well as for tenants to pay with cash through MoneyGram! Visit www.schedulemyrent.com to learn more about their property management platform.
  • Think Ubiquitous. Think Ubiquitous continues to build new data analysis tools using their Tellus Data Platform. After a significant amount of work defining and understanding their market, they recently began working on a new product, which will enable tech businesses and prospective employees to more easily and transparently navigate the technical interview experience. To find out more about this disruptive product and how you can be involved in helping with early test cases, visit www.think-ubiquitous.com.

If you’re a member of the Albuquerque or New Mexico startup or entrepreneurial community and are interested in getting involved in ActivateNM as a future cohort company, workshop facilitator, or team mentor, contact us at info@abqid.com, Subject: ActivateNM.

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Join us Thursday, March 7 for a VC Meetup with Crosslink, Kickstart, and more!

Join us on March 7, 2019, 5-7pm at Lobo Rainforest for a Venture Capital Meetup with Crosslink Capital from San Francisco (investors in Descartes Labs, Ancestry.com, Pandora), California and Kickstart Seed Fund out of Salt Lake City, Utah (investors in AdWallet, Lucid, and Trilumina). The event will also feature representatives from Arrowhead Center, NMA Ventures, Sun Mountain Capital, Aspen Vista Capital, and ABQid Fund.

This event is an exciting opportunity for New Mexico entrepreneurs seeking venture capital to hear from and meet with top regional funds. After a panel and Q&A session, we’ll host a structured networking exercise in which attendees will have the chance to meet 1-on-1 for a brief period with the investors. ABQid Staff will facilitate these interactions to respect everyone’s time.

Heavy appetizers and beverages will be provided. This event is hosted by ABQid, powered by CNM Ingenuity.

RSVP now on Addmi (FREE)

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Ski Lift Pitch 2019 Competitors & Judges Announced

2019 Ski Lift Pitch Competitors & Judges Announced

Since its first year in 2014, ABQid’s Ski Lift Pitch competition has brought national attention to New Mexico. The event now puts the state on the map as a place where snow-loving investors and startups convene to identify new business opportunities and build new professional relationships.

ABQid’s Ski Lift Pitch Contest began 5 years ago when ABQid board member, Katie Rice, envisioned a one-of-its-kind startup pitch competition. The idea: startup teams pitch their companies to prestigious investors while they ride the chair lift together to the top of the mountain. After multiple rounds of pitching in this format, three startup finalists are selected to pitch on stage for a chance to win $10,000 non-dilutive capital.

Former contest winners include Taos Mountain Energy Bars, UBQid, EquiSeq, and Twistle, but really, all competitors are winners because they get the opportunity to forge intentional relationships with multiple investors from around the country. This brings value to investors and startups long after the end of the event. Last year, for example, one runner-up went on to receive a $300,000 investment from an investor they met at the Ski Lift Pitch competition. That startup continues to grow, right here in New Mexico.

Tickets to this years event can be purchased at www.skiliftpitch.com.

2019 Competitors

Ski Lift Pitch returns to New Mexico in February 2019, again with the generous support of Taos Ski Valley and many sponsors, investors, and individuals who give their time and resources to make this event a success.

Ski Lift Pitch 2019 is particularly exciting due to the number of New Mexico-based companies that will compete. This year, 50% of finalist companies are from New Mexico, as well as six investor judges. Outside of the Ski Lift Pitch season, we at ABQid works hard to build successful startups in our state, and we also strive to highlight New Mexico as a place where investors look for promising investment opportunities. As such, we couldn’t be more excited to see the New Mexico startup ecosystem thriving and gaining the attention of both in- and out-of-state investors.

Here are the competitors:

  • Boobi Butter: Boobi Butter makes breast health easy, fun, and empowering, encouraging women to perform regular breast-massages and self-checks with our nourishing topical breast care products.
  • Covisus: Covisus develops technology to forge secure, transparent supply chains, helping companies ensure the integrity of their products.
  • Armada Lock: Armada Lock is developing Drone Fleet Management, a SaaS service management platform for commercial drones.
  • Go-Station: Go-Station provides the most advanced rapid electric vehicle charging network in the world.
  • iTherapy Docs: iTherapy Docs provides an agency management platform (SaaS) for Medicaid/Personal Care Services (PCS)
  • K&K Skin Products: K&K Skin Products uses nature’s power plus cutting edge science to achieve healthy skin.  
  • Magnify Your Voice: Magnify provides a civic action network tool to boost civic engagement.
  • Medicheck Mx: Medicheck MX is building an Electronic Health Record Ecosystem for Latin America.
  • NTxBio: NTxBio uses nature’s blueprints to identify and build molecules of market interest.
  • Rest Assured: Rest Assured is creating a fusion of clinical sleep medicine and retail sleep products.
  • Trusted Herd: Trusted Herd’s staffing industry reputation site is the largest, most reputable & only such site in the United States.
  • VisionQuest Biomedical: VisionQuest revolutionizes retinal diagnostics with the EyeStar™ artificial intelligence (AI) reading system, a market-ready, cost-effective solution to screen for Diabetic Retinopathy and other vision threatening eye diseases.

2019 Investor Judges

 

Many Thanks to Our 2019 Sponsors

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