Utah Entrepreneurial Challenge

• Posted by Steve Spencer

Article posted on Apr 14

One of the programs that I really love here in Utah is the Utah Entrepreneurial challenge.  I was really pleased and blessed this year to have been given the opportunity to be a mentor to one of the teams.  The team I was working with is called Qgia.  Qgia’s product is pretty slick.  It’s a very inexpensive solution for companies (and even individuals in the case of yahoo or ebay stores) to be able to either upload video they have produced, or even point at video hosted somewhere else, and then have it played on their site/online store.  What makes it cooler though, is that you can upload images to be used as “buttons”, and tell how many seconds into the video there popup, where, and what url they should direct to.  So imagine a Convention/visitor’s bureau video that hi-lights Utah destinations, and then as each one is show there is a button right on the video for a call to action for that section of the video.  Further, this can be directly integrated into a shopping cart… so if the image is someone boarding at Brighton, the “buy now” button might jump right to a cart with a pass in it already.  I know their website is still under construction, but if you want to talk to these guys sooner, just let me know and I’ll help.  I know that Mark and his team are headed for grea things (Heck, I’m ready to star using it!)

Another company that I have written about several times is Klymit.  These guys have got a really neat product that uses Argo, among other gasses inside of a jacket liner.  Combine this with a small pressurized canister (the size of a  CO2 can that might be used ina  BB gun), a adjuster dial, andSHAZAM!  What you have is an unbelievably lightjacket (so they tell me… I am still waiting in line to buy one) that let’s you literally “dial-in” the appropriate level of insulation.  Dial it up while riding the lift up, dial it down when you’re carving moguls.  Cool stuff. (as a note: Nick Sorenson’s presentation was very polished.  Nice job.)

The winner this year was Amwell (not sure if they have a website… anyone know of one?)  Amwell is one of those companies that really makes you feel good to be a human bieng.  They have developed a product with innovative technology for vaginal application of medecines.  They use case they are headed into trials for is supposed to prevent pregnancy, HIV, and other STD’s.  I apologize that I don’t know more about it… but I’ll see what I can find out as far as web resources to point you to.

The winner this year walked away with $50,000.  Second and Third took $10,000 each, and the rest of the top ten walked with $2,000 each.  Not a bad jump to your business.  Good job to everyone involved, and a shout out to Qgia, good job for making the top ten!!

• Posted in Events