Techstars Boulder Demo Day introduces startups

BOULDER — Techstars Boulder held its 12th Demo Day Tuesday, when several entrepreneurs pitched their startups to about 1,000 attendees from the Boulder community.

The companies represented several states across the United States, as well as the United Kingdom and France. One company, Los Angeles-based Ordermark, announced it would be opening its second location in Colorado in the fall.

The companies were:

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Avvay, from Nashville, Tenn. This company finds locations for their clients’ projects through an online marketplace. With its CEO, Jon Howard, a guitarist for the band Paramore, and the other founders also touring musicians, the company said that one of the biggest difficulties in creating creative content that stands out is the headache of finding and booking locations for projects. The space rental market is a $27 billion industry, Howard said, and the platform not only allows creatives to easily book spaces for photoshoots or practices, but also allows renters to maximize their rental time and revenue.

BubbleIQ, based in Boulder, is a software-as-a-service platform that enables customer support, IT and HR teams to serve customers and employees by connecting chat tools such as Slack to Helpdesk systems. Since launching six months ago, annual recurring revenue has grown from $40,000 to $100,000. BubbleIQ speeds up the customer service experience by eliminating the need to switch between multiple chat and Helpdesk systems to integrate them together. The company is integrated with Zendesk, a Helpdesk system with 120,000 customers, and announced at Demo Day it was adding Salesforce Service Cloud, which would more than double its customers.

Dynepic, of Charleston, S.C., is the creator of of playPortal, a platform for developers that allows them to comply with federal child-safety protocols like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, which protects the data of children. Developers can create online games for kids by using the playPortal as a basis, and then kids can share their results with friends using the portal. Parents are keyed in to which friends are on the portal, and they can delete their child’s data when they’re done.

Flex, from London, is a company that allows fitness enthusiasts to get a bodyweight workout from their own home by offering fun and interactive videos that accurately display and track a users results. The company makes revenue by charging $19.99 per month.

Geospiza, a startup from Denver, helps emergency managers, elected officials and corporations during disaster events. Most emergency managers have to create disaster preparedness plans that are printed and put in binders, which can cost thousands of dollars and creates a plan that can’t be interactive. Geospiza, created by emergency managers, allows officials to use a digital interface that pulls in data like historic information, projected rainfall and social media to help planners analyze the scenario as its happening and make decisions. The company announced it was launching a pilot FEMA to test Geospiza to aid five states in their hurricane prep.

Goally, from Denver, empowers kids with development challenges, such as ADHD and autism, to lead lives that are independent and more stress-free. Goally provides an app for parents and kids: For the kids, it helps walk them through tasks like going through their morning routine to get ready for school. For parents, the app provides data on how their child is doing, if they’re struggling with any task and advice on how the parent can help their kid accomplish the task. The company has 400 customers since launching in August, and by charging $29 per month has made a monthly recurring revenue of $15,000.

Krak, a startup from Paris, connects participants in extreme sports with products and other members in their community. The company has launched platforms for the climbing and skateboarding communities.

Ordermark, from Los Angeles, helps restaurants streamline online ordering by providing one platform that integrates many different online delivery systems. The company is partnering with brands like Subway, Sonic and Burger King and announced that it would open its second location in Colorado in the fall.

Player’s Health, based in Minneapolis, is a company that helps sports organizations manage risk and control their liability by providing on-demand insurance and risk-management services. The company is targeting youth sports organizations and offers two services. One is a portal where athlete information is stored and allows coaches to document any injuries a player has experienced to ensure they get doctor approval before playing again. In addition to providing a paper trail and documentation, organizations can also purchase insurance backed by Munich RE. The company is planning to expand to Canada, the U.K, Germany and Australia.

Walkthrough, based in Denver, helps property managers and homeowners looking to rent or sell their houses get professional-looking photography done. Walkthrough hires contractors, who they split the profits with, to take photos of clients’ properties. Contractors use cellphones equipped with Walkthrough’s app to take and edit photos.