HUUB, a software platform developed by CO+HOOTS, won a $10,000 grant as part of a competition initiated by a collaboration between the U.S. Small Business Administration and the National Science and Technology Council’s Lab-to-market subcommittee.
The Lab-to-Market (L2M) Inclusive Innovation Ecosystem Prize Competition awarded $330,000 in prizes to companies across the country. More than 160 applicants submitted applications.
Phoenix-based CO+HOOTS received the “Ecosystem Responder” award, which was given for “innovative and effective responses to support the R&D ecosystem amidst the pandemic environment.” Companies based in Colorado, New York and Ohio also received this award.
CO+HOOTS was founded in 2010 in Phoenix by Jenny Poon and Odeen Domingo. They recently launched HUUB to combat the challenges for entrepreneurs, especially women and people of color, that have only become more prevalent due to the pandemic.
“I was always fielding questions around what to do, where to go, which partner to work with while also seeing these challenges affect people of color and women in greater numbers,” Poon said. “It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that these problems became a hurricane.”
The company has plans to build another location in Mesa in 2021 and is expanding HUUB to many more cities including Phoenix, which is set to launch mid-February in partnership with the City of Phoenix.
Arizona was one of only two states that had two winners in the L2M competition. Startup Tucson also won a $10,000 “Super Connector” award for “current efforts to successfully attract and/or support networks of underrepresented communities in the R&D innovation ecosystem.”
Entrepreneurs in Gilbert, Mesa and Phoenix can join the HUUB network here: myhuub.com
