32 advance in 2016 Venture Madness competition

It’s down from 64 to 32 startups who will advance to Round 2 in the Invest Southwest 2016 Venture Madness competition and walk away with a piece of the $100,000 prize. Of the 32 finalists, one of them will win the 2016 People’s Choice winner and take home a $5,000 prize. Vote for your favorite company … Read more

Voting opens for Venture Madness top 64 startups

Time to break out the brackets for Venture Madness 2016! This event, brought to the Valley by Invest Southwest and Arizona Commerce Authority, is where the top 64 startups go head-to-head in a pitch competition and vie for a portion of the $100,000 prize and the chance to be crowned champion. The first elimination round begins tomorrow … Read more

Winner! Winner! ACA Innovation Challenge Fall finalists announced!

There’s a week or so left before the new year and these startups have more money to kick off 2016 with a bang and build their business. The ACA Innovation Challenge announced their Fall finalists who will take home $250,000 in grant money to grow their business. Let’s find out who’s celebrating tonight…   Beacon … Read more

Top 10 finalists announced for Fall 2015 Arizona Innovation Challenge

Ten finalists were announced today for the bi-annual Arizona Innovation Challenge held by the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA). This time around 131 companies applied from Arizona, California, Ohio, Utah and Virginia. It was whittled down to 25 semifinalists in October and now to the top 10. This is the biggest challenge in Arizona and the … Read more

Four new startups join CEI incubator

Contributions by Chloe Nordquist Four Arizona biotechnology and medical device startups will be joining Phoenix-based Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation (CEI) business incubator. “We see enormous amounts of potential with each of these companies, which is validated by the fact that several have already gone through other incubation programs in the Valley,” CEI executive director Jeff … Read more

Seed Spot Demo Day attracted zombies, dogs and geniuses

From natural smoothie pops to paraffin wax gloves, Seed Spot’s fifth Demo Day showcased startups with a wide variety of goals and social impact areas. Twelve startups presented their ideas Tuesday night to a packed house at downtown Phoenix’s Herberger Theater Center. Seed Spot, an incubator in Phoenix for ventures with social impact, has helped 143 … Read more

Seed Spot launches nine new startup ventures

From the top of a rooftop overlooking downtown Phoenix, Seed Spot announced the nine new startup ventures who have been inducted into Spring 2015’s incubator program. To kick it off, Seed Spot CEO and co-founder Courtney Klein spoke briefly about her incubator, which has seen an 88 percent success rate of startups who have been … Read more