implanted in the aorta, the major artery coming from the heart, through a catheter, as Xconomy’s Angela Shah reported last year. The catheter is threaded up from the thigh through the femoral artery, says COO Jason Heuring. The minimally invasive device takes 10 minutes to install, and has a patent pending on its sheath, Heuring says.
Social media award: Ambix
Prize includes: first round interview at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator; three months free office space at Rackspace in San Francisco; lifetime access to Foundersuite
—Ambix is a private social media platform for groups such as nonprofits. The U.K.-based company allows members to communicate about a common interest, through mail, group discussion posts, private messages and other methods.
The others:
—SnowShoe uses small plastic stamps, which can be attached to anything from a child’s toy to a product like Red Bull, to connect customers to brands through a smartphone. The company, which Xconomy’s Michael Davidson profiled in 2013, makes stamps that each have a unique code. When a person touches the stamp to his or her smartphone screen, it does anything from launching an exclusive video to downloading an app, says Claus Moberg, the San Francisco company’s CEO.
—Cheddar Up offers a payment processing system that works like an Evite for school fundraisers, field trips, and anything for which people—mothers in particular—might need to collect money, says Nichole Montoya, the Denver company’s CEO. The user creates a payment page through which she can track and process payments, Montoya says. The company charges a transaction fee, as well as subscription fees for heavy users.
—BeConnections is a social media company that tries to connect small- and medium-sized businesses with one another. The company intends to make business development connections between companies and retain leads for those companies, says CEO Carlota Pico. The company has users in 40 counties in a couple of dozen industries, Pico says. It is based in Madrid, though it is a part of the Boston accelerator Dat Venture.
—Nanopore Diagnostics has built a test for bacterial infections, helping physicians and hospitals determine which antibiotics to use on patients. The St. Louis, MO, company has developed a technology called the iNDxer that precisely and quickly diagnoses, says CEO Tom Cohen. The device, intended initially for use in emergency rooms, can diagnose infections in 30 minutes, compared to as many as five days for culture tests, Cohen says.
—Wyzerr processes customer surveys for businesses, taking the surveys right at the point of sale rather than printing a request on a receipt for customers to take the survey later. The Syracuse, New York-based company’s surveys take 15 to 60 seconds, and use IBM’s Watson to spot positive and negative trends in the business, says founder and lead programmer Natasia Malaihollo. The company, which considers itself a hybrid research and survey company, uses game-like tools to drive participation.
—Cargo has built a device that connects to the computer system of, ideally, any and all cars. The Portland, OR-based company’s software can do anything from locate a car that is missing to unlock it using a smartphone, says CEO Tyler Phillipi. It has launched pilot programs in Portland and San Francisco and won’t be in other cities for at least another year, Phillipi says.
