Energy Capital Start-Up Challenge announces three winners

The Energy Capital Economic Development has announced the three winners of the second annual Energy Capital Start-Up Challenge entrepreneur competition.  

Pitch Night for the Challenge took place Dec. 4, at the Gillette College Technical Education Center.  

Seven judges served on the panel that selected the three winners. The panel included Kevin Couch of Pinnacle Bank, Shawn Gee of Highland Park Capital LLC, Krysten Lee of Gillette College, Quentin Rogers of Powder River Energy Corporation, Jerry Sommer of Sheridan, Nate Williams of Kennon Products, and Zoe Worthen of Uplink Robotics.  

The Energy Capital Economic Development report the winners selected by the panel are:

Inflatrix, founded by Mark Thoreson, has created a device designed to reduce the time, discomfort, and difficulty of placing dental fillings in back teeth during dental procedures.

Root to Shoot, Nathan Roma, has created a microgreens farm that provides year-round fresh produce while realizing a reduction in water and electricity usage over traditional farming methods.

White Hat, founded by Dan Knievel, Nick Bolton, and Waleed Siddiqui, provides a managed security service that specializes in ransomware protection and incident response for companies in critical infrastructure and high-risk sectors.

Power Theory, founded by Isaac Almejo-Ponce and Luke Macy, and The Blind Wrench, founded by Adam and Briar Feist, were the other finalists that presented their plans as part of the program.

Each of the Pitch Night winners will receive $5,000 and will be eligible to apply for additional funding from the balance of the $50,000 Energy Capital Start-Up Challenge seed fund. The judging panel will reconvene in February with the three winning companies to review progress made on business plans and consider funding requests that will help advance the development of all three winners.

Root to Shoot will receive an additional $1,000 for being named winner of the Audience Choice Award from votes submitted by live audience and livestream viewers.

This year’s Challenge kicked off in early September with the opening of the application period. The Challenge judge panel reviewed all submitted applications and selected eight semi-finalists, which met with the judges in October and provided additional information on their plans.  The judges then selected the five finalists that presented at Pitch Night.  

Scot Rendall, formerly of IMPACT 307 and currently a consultant for CFO4Success LLC, and Dana Miller, Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Coordinator for the Gillette College Office of Economic Transformation and an Energy Capital Economic Development board member, conducted the competition.

“Pitch Night included five outstanding and diverse plans that are great examples of our area’s entrepreneurial spirit. It’s been a pleasure to work with each of the entrepreneurial teams as they continue development of their plans,” Rendall said.

Miller added, “This year’s Challenge was made possible through support from fifteen different organizations at the state, regional, and local level. We are so pleased to have stakeholders that believe in the growth and success of our area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Challenge continues to help boost startup activity in our northeast Wyoming region.”   

Energy Capital Economic Development is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to stimulate and facilitate a diverse economy through business retention, expansion, and recruitment. ECED runs the FUEL Business Incubator Program that assists entrepreneurs to start, run and grow small businesses.