Three Colorado startups are making plans for a possible trip to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA, where they could meet Google personnel and make their pitches before Silicon Valley investors and a worldwide audience watching online.
The three startups—Conspire, Native, and RxRevu—beat out 13 other startups last week for the chance to present at this year’s Google Demo Day. The main event is scheduled for April 2.
Google now will pick from the three companies, as well as other startups nominated from similar events held around the country. Google will tell the startups if they made the cut by the middle of the month.
RxRevu is a digital health startup seeking to help patients and doctors lower the cost of treatment by creating a database of available drugs. It can be used to help them find effective drugs and compare costs, and the company says the average patient can save between $500 and $3,000 per year.
Native is working on making software that connects users to personal travel assistants who can help with planning and booking travel and recommend events, restaurants, and destinations. The company originally was known as Varsity and tied for first place at the University of Colorado-Boulder’s New Venture Challenge last year. The startup originally helped college students find nearby clubs, concerts, events, and classes they might be interested in before pivoting to its current state.
Conspire is making software that analyzes users’ e-mail histories to create a social graph that provides a more accurate picture of the strength of relationships between contacts and friends. The program is like an enhanced LinkedIn that lets users know what connections are meaningful and strong, which can help users find the best person that can connect them to potential customers, employees, or investors.
Native and Conspire are both based in Boulder and are Techstars alumni, having gone through the Boulder 2014 and Austin 2014 programs, respectively. RxRevu is located in Denver.
A panel of investors, including partners from three prominent early stage VC firms, picked the winner. They were Nicole Glaros, the longtime managing director of Techstars Boulder and a partner of the new $150 million Techstars Ventures fund; Galvanize Ventures managing director Nick Wyman; and 500 Startups partner Parker Thompson.
Galvanize hosted the competition in Denver as part of Colorado Demo Day, which it plans to make an annual event. This is the second time Galvanize has worked with Google to nominate a company to pitch in Mountain View. Last year, GoSpotCheck was picked. It returned home with a $100,000 investment from Steve Case, the AOL co-founder and former CEO, who was one of the judges.
One other startup left the competition a winner. Parkifi, a Denver startup working on software that can tell parking lot owners, cities, and drivers about parking spot availability in real time, earned a spot in the upcoming Colorado State University Blue Ocean Challenge. The challenge is a pitch competition in which startups vie for a $250,000 grand prize. It will take place in May in Fort Collins.
