KLOwen Braces wins top honors at PitchNo.CO

FORT COLLINS — KLOWen Braces beat out four other companies Friday night to win the third annual Pitch.NoCO startup competition to close out Fort Collins Startup Week Friday night.

The 3D-printer orthodontics startup got the highest score from a panel of judges over four other semi-finalist companies, including business-writing coach Appendance, hemp producers Farmhouse Organics, digital dental brace producer KLOwen, holistic veterinary firm Natural Pet Doctor and Zentainer, an integration platform for manufacturers and their distributors.

Twelve companies in total competed in the pitch battle over three rounds in the latter half of the week for a portion of more than $40,000 in consulting, advertising and marketing services.

KLOwen vice president of operations COrey Blackham told BizWest that winning free marketing sessions will be immensely helpful for a company that knows how to design specialized teeth-straightening technology, but not as much about how to sell it.

“We’re mostly operational at this point, and we’re trying to do marketing with the knowledge we have, so it’s actually incredible,” he said. 

(Editor’s note: BizWest co-publisher Jeff Nuttall was a judge in earlier rounds of the competition. BizWest is a joint sponsor with MAPR of the top prize, which was awarded to Appendance.)

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