The Kauffman Foundation has picked the 15 startups that’ll compete in the One in a Million pitch competition during Global Entrepreneurship Week in November.
Three of the semifinalists are local: AEGLE Palette of Shawnee; blooom of Leawood; and Idle Smart of Kansas City, Kan. While all 15 are invited to Kansas City, five will be picked to compete during a livestreamed event on Nov. 18.
The grand prize is $10,000. Second-place prize is $5,000, and the third-place finisher will receive $1,000.
More than 375 businesses entered the One in a Million contest. The prerequisite was that each one had to have presented at a 1 Million Cups event, in Kansas City or in some other city. They were judged according to long-term potential, management team, marketability and other factors.
The other semifinalists are:
- Cirkul Bottle, Sarasota, Fla.
- Crowd Energy, Zephyrhills, Fla.
- DryBox – Wet Phone Rescue, San Antonio, Texas
- GO Box, Portland, Ore.
- GoWorx, Asheville, N.C.
- Increment, Providence, R.I.
- iPourIt, Inc.,Lake Forest, Calif.
- knectIQ Inc., St. Paul, Minn.
- io, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Pick My Solar, Los Angeles, Calif.
- SWINEGUARD Inc.,New Sharon, Iowa
- Upsie, Minneapolis, Minn.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org/1NAM.
