Last night Seed Spot, the socially conscious incubator, held its 4th DEMO DAY where 10 startups showcased their innovation all with the mission to change the world for good.
Since Seed Spot’s inception, startups have raised $1.7 million in capital, 90 percent of the companies continue to thrive in Phoenix and 160 jobs have been created.
Startups that emerge out of the program typically focus on healthcare, energy and education, but for this go around, animal rights took the stage and made its presence known with a few tail wags.
PAWS 2 READ is a literary program where elementary children read to registered pet therapy animals. The program stats revealed an increased in fluency by 30 percent over the course of 10 weeks. They have grown from four to 100 teams and serve over 30 locations in Arizona. Paws took home prizes of six months free office space at Seed Spot and $5,000 from the Pakis Center for Business Philanthropy.
With over 3M animals euthanized every year in U.S. shelters, Steve Zeidman, founder of Vestafy, intends to use his engineering skills in workflow management and 17 years of experience helping animal shelters and bring a new generation of animal shelter software to organizations. His software is designed to streamline and increase the effectiveness of the animal welfare community. The platform can be customized by the organization, run on mobile devices, and enable animal control agencies and humane societies to focus their resources on finding homes for pets and returning lost animals to their owners. They won the six months of free private office space at Seed Spot.
The show continued with startups presenting their innovative solutions for finding jobs, saving money on college textbooks and the floating key syndrome found in the vacation rental industry. The real treat was a 17-year-old student from Brophy College Preparatory solving problems, one shoe at a time.
Student Connor Willey entered the Seed Spot High School program with a business idea inspired by a member of his family who is a leg amputee. Connor, founder of Trade My Shoe, built a company that allows leg amputees and people with disabilities to trade their extra shoes with one another worldwide. Connor took home $2,500 in prize money. What else does a teenage entrepreneur do with his time in between school and building a business? Watch his inspirational reaction in the video below. #RedArmy
[youtube]http://youtu.be/h8dDayaRLwQ[/youtube]
Meghan Martinez has spent the majority of her career in real estate and property management and always had a concern about floating keys and break-ins at her properties. With home automation being one of the hot items on the holiday list and certainly will be a focus at the Consumer Electronic Show, she is joining the mix and developed KEASY, a keyless lock, that can be managed from ones’ mobile device or computer. Unlike other keyless locks on the market, KEASY uses its patent pending technology that works on a pattern of light to activate the lock and doesn’t need WIFI, Bluetooth or Z-Wave. KEASY took home the audience favorite award and $5K, as well as a trip to the conference of their choice. Watch the demo of KEASY below.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/ScL04jVG0lo[/youtube]
Who else presented?
MyBeeble helps college students buy and sell their textbooks in a social environment. This company has blossomed since our initial report and have added many features and options for students to “be their own bookstore” and save up to 53 percent on textbooks.
Real Soulful is a positive social networking platform that focuses on intrinsic needs and desire to help others.
Feel Free is a movement that promotes face-to-face interaction within local communities. They will be present at the Startup Connect AZ event and encourage participants to join in the Feel Free environment.
Acqhired is a job placement software platform that helps people learn more about a company’s culture, attitude, vibe and purpose to find the right fit for them. For the employer, the product blends time and cost savings, the ability to hire teams and uses human capital intelligence to seek out the right employee.
Pal Experiences helps those with intellectual and developmental disabilities prepare for and adapt to places of interest, such as museums and aquariums, through video, training and guidance kits. They won the $3K prize from Pakis Center for Business Philanthropy.
Seed Spot High School program is a semester-long initiative that is being piloted this Spring with Tesseract School and will be offered to schools nationwide next Fall. The program is designed to inspire, educate and launch solutions to important societal problems.
What does co-founder Seed Spot think of her Demo Day? Watch Courtney Klein’s response below.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/PV-7suQIGr8[/youtube]
Read our past coverage of Seed Spot DEMO DAYs
Updated information about SS high school program was added after the original post