The makers of apps that help college students find mentors, tourists find activities, and commuters find perks took home the $25,000 top prizes as the winners of the second Go Code Colorado challenge.
The competition is sponsored by the state in an effort to help startups find ways to use and commercialize the publicly available data collected by state and local governments. Regional events and competitions were held in Denver, Colorado Springs, Durango, Fort Collins, and Grand Junction.
Mentor Matters, Stay CO-Flow, and Pikr Knows beat out six other teams in the final round last week. A total of 31 teams participated in the competition.
For their work, the three winners each receive a one-year, $25,000 contract with the Secretary of State’s office.
Mentor Matters is a Denver-based startup that wants to improve recruiting for businesses and increase new hire retention through mentorship. It is developing an app to connect college and university students with volunteer mentors in select industries.
Stay CO-Flow is a Fort Collins-based team making a mobile app designed to encourage and validate responsible commuting. It does that by offering incentives, such as perks from local businesses. The hope is it will reduce traffic congestion by analyzing, predicting, and promoting environmentally friendly ways to commute.
Pikr Knows, also based in Fort Collins, is making a tourism app for residents and visitors that suggests activities. Users give the app personally identifiable information in exchange for suggestions. Businesses could use the information the app collects to adjust their business models, offerings, and marketing and sales campaigns.
