Entrepreneurs tackling big problems win Pitch Day
By Mark Wilcox
Wyoming Business Report, Nov 27, 2022
Winners of a Jackson Hole competition where startups pitch their business to a live audience showed that small businesses can tackle big challenges.
Pitch Day is an annual competition put on by Silicon Couloir, an entrepreneurship development nonprofit. Winners receive about $20,000 in cash and other beneficial business rewards, like access to a co-work space run by the nonprofit and mentoring.
“We are biased,” said Executive Director Gary Trauner, “but I do believe we run a world-class event that will stack up against anyone anywhere.”
The program coaches and coaxes entrepreneurs through activities that help them clarify messaging and focus. Then it puts them on the stage in front of a live audience to practice pitching their business and compete for the aforementioned prizes.
Specifically, grand prize is a $10,000 cash award, chosen by a group of successful businesspeople who act as panelists. Think of it as the “Shark Tank” award, if the sharks gave a prize instead of offering deals for a cut of the companies. It goes to the most compelling business idea with the best chance for success, highest likelihood of getting funded, the strongest presentation and values aligned with Silicon Couloir.
Second place is the Audience Choice Award winner, which goes to the company that resonates most with the audience. Attendees vote live on their favorite pitch of the five presented via text. The winner gets $5,000 cash and a year of free use of Silicon Couloir’s co-work space in downtown Jackson.
The final prize is the Bob Arndt Community Caretaker Award. It gives $2,500 cash and six months of free use of the co-work space, and comes with an invitation to join a mentoring program offered by Silicon Couloir. It’s given typically to the most community- and environmentally conscious businesses.
Read on to catch up with the three award winners from this year’s Pitch Day.
“It was our strongest group of presenters yet, and the passion and purpose was palpable,” Trauner said in an email to the Wyoming Business Report.
Grand Prize Panelist Award: Remo Health
The grand prize award went to Remo Health, a company founder Matt LeKrey is building after finding dementia care for his father lacking in almost every respect.
He said during the last “lucid conversation” he had with his father that he would do everything he could to help other families struggling with the harsh realities of dementia, and the huge economic and social problems it creates.
“We found the current standard of care to be completely unacceptable,” LeKrey said.
Specifically, he said care providers all seem to say that nothing can be done for dementia victims.
“While there’s no cure, that’s categorically untrue,” he said. Without the proper guidance and support, patients end up neglected by uninformed caregivers, since their families simply don’t have an appropriate plan or even know how to make real decisions, like estate planning.
Beyond those issues, it’s also a multi-month or multi-year journey to even get diagnosed.
“Once you have the diagnosis, you have to pull all the pieces of the jigsaw together yourself, then magically figure out how to pay for it,” LeKrey said. This pattern ends up creating poor outcomes, like unnecessary ER visits or repeat trips to the hospital, because of adverse effects of medication.
“That is completely unreasonable and has to change,” he said. And change is on the horizon.
After a scant two years in business, the seed-stage Remo Health, based in Jackson, has developed a patient base of several hundred people being served by full-time doctors on the team. Additionally, LeKrey said there are about 5,000 more people in the pipeline to become customers.
He said, given the growth, it has required hard work to scale up and provide as much high-quality care as possible without compromises. Currently, Remo Health employs 11 people, including developers, doctors and business developers, and has taken in funding from venture capital and private investors.
Though based in Wyoming, the team is piloting the program in California and actively pursuing licensing in other states. They’ve built a system that uses telemedicine and community knowledge by foremost experts to provide a comprehensive care package that goes far beyond simple health care.
“Remo offers the ability to connect with a community of other caregivers, to learn from content created by foremost experts, and then to act to get the best care for your loved one where and when they need it,” LeKrey said.
That includes giving people the option to get care at home. That’s especially important for a state like Wyoming, where specialty doctors are often located hours from where patients live.
“We feel strongly that people shouldn’t have to miss a week of work and drive six hours to meet with someone for 15 minutes,” LeKrey said, adding that technology like video calls have helped enable better remote care.
But despite not being able to do everything, LeKrey said he recognizes they can do a lot for people dealing with subpar dementia care.
“There are millions struggling, and we’re at the beginning of a long road,” he said.
Audience Choice Award: Naughty Fruit
Naughty Fruit combines natural sugars and a little spice to create healthy snacks for outdoor-oriented people. The company has been in business for five years after coming through Silicon Couloir’s Start-Up Intensive, an immersive program helping people put flesh on their business ideas. Founder Juan Morales got his start by selling traditional Mexican tamales and tacos at places like local farmers’ markets.
But he noticed a lack of healthy snack options that don’t have preservatives, aren’t natural or are just tasteless. So he took a traditional Mexican flavor blend of salt, lemon and chili pepper to spice up healthy snacking.
“We like to add a little spice to our food,” Morales said.
While most Mexican palates are used to the blend and instantly know what to expect, American palates don’t always get it. He said his No. 1 question is if it’s spicy. “No, it’s spiced,” he said. “It’s a subtle flavor … but makes the fruit flavors jump out.”
And the majority of people who try it like it, though some request additional kick. Morales is now working to expand from a local footprint in the Jackson Hole market to a national market by expanding his team beyond himself and pushing into online marketing.
“Because of Pitch Day, we’ve let the community know where we’re at and where we want to be,” Morales said.
Community Caretaker Award: Avant Delivery
Recycling is a broken system, according to Sam Schwartz, founder of Avant Delivery.
“Recycling is a system we pay for, but that doesn’t really work, which is kind of maddening,” Schwartz said. “We’re replacing it with something that works.”
Avant is currently pivoting its business model after being in business two years to be the Uber of reusable coffee containers. That takes a little explanation. Essentially, Schwartz is working toward a volume play that will allow Avant to sell back reusable containers after collecting and washing them for less than it would cost a coffee shop to buy its own disposable containers.
“At the end of the day, you have to offer real fiscal incentives, and that’s what we’re going after,” he said.
At the point of sale, customers will pay a $1 pre-cycling fee for their cups that gets returned to them in full once they return it to a collection kiosk. Alternately, they’ll be able to use an app to call in an Uber-style driver to collect their cups. If they do this, the driver keeps the fees. A third option involves a split with a collection partner and the consumer.
But the cups will cost Avant about $2 apiece, and it’s difficult to squeeze a lot of profit out of that after washing it and returning it to the business for 15 cents apiece. As is, he said it will take about 36 returns per cup to come out ahead, but each cup has a lifespan of about 1,000 uses, and Schwartz said he’s going after a volume play that scales quickly.
“As much as I love Wyoming business, we’re not going to make a big difference eliminating single-use coffee cups in Wyoming,” Schwartz said.
Specifically, he wants to land large chains like Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and others like them. Starbucks has already announced its intention to eliminate single-use cups by 2030, meaning someone has to pave an inroad anyway.
He said because of how he’s constructed the business model, it makes it simple and cost-effective for consumers and businesses to recycle while also adding some pocket change to drivers willing to pick up the cups. That means it should hold appeal across the political spectrum – an important goal for a recycling company in Wyoming.
“This is not this eco-warrior granola solution,” he said, adding that many such programs are heavy on costs and light on benefits.