Our annual Innovations 4 Entreprenuers Contest is going on now through March 12 and we encourage all local Utah startups and entrepreneurs to submit an entry!
Last year, Salt Lake City startup company Descue Medical was a regional winner and walked away with $10,000. Founder Andrew Pagels told us how the award helped further Descue’s mission:
“Funding provided Descue the resources we needed to derisk a major part of our technology, one of the most important factors to securing further investment and partnerships with large medical companies. This has positioned us appear more credible and be closer to securing these partnerships. Thank you!”
Read on to find out more about how your business can win up to $30,000 and a special trip to Philly to spend a day meeting and brainstorming with business experts about how to grow your business.
To be selected as a winner, we ask startups and entrepreneurs to tell us how they use technology to take their business to the next level. As an example, here is an excerpt from Descue Medical’s winning essay detailing how their innovative technology furthers their business.
While conventional diagnostics are typically expensive and trapped within hospitals, the iTest gives consumers a way to test themselves cheaply, at home. The testing device is a jacket which fits around an iPhone and will interface with disposable tests for Strep, Flu, Rhinovirus, Dengue Fever, and Malaria. Users simply swab their cheek, and an application on the phone checks for a panel of viral proteins, cholesterol, and much more.
“Once we have the device in production, the applications are nearly limitless. For example, taking iTest to resource-poor countries will bring diagnostic accessibility to previously very remote, underserved areas,” said Jonathan Bruns, Chief Engineer of Descue Medical.
Contest Timeline 2016
| February 1 to March 12 | Contest Entry Period |
|---|---|
| March 14 to Arpil 8 | Sponsor Selection of Regional Winners and Alternates |
| April 25 | Regional Winners Announced |
| April 26 to May 13 | Public Voting of Regional Finalists |
|---|---|
| June 6 | Grand Prize Winners Announced |
| August 18 | I4E Grand Prize event in Philadelphia |
What are the prizes?
Regional Prize: Our judges will select two winners in each of the 15 Comcast Business Regions: one Startup and one Entrepreneur. Each winner will be awarded $10,000 in cash to help their business get to the next level.
Grand Prize: From these 30 winners, six will be named as GRAND PRIZE Winners and will receive an additional $20,000 and a special trip to Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia – where they will meet with our I4E expert teams to get priceless advice on marketing, operations, digital strategy, funding, technology investment and more.
