Four student startup teams received $5,270 in milestone grants at the regular Get Seeded Final Pitch Event for September on Sept. 30. See below for a list of teams and their product ideas.
This final event was hosted on Zoom and broadcast on YouTube for the very first time. The event was held virtually due to COVID-19. It included the usual startup pitches and public voting to see who earned grants. More than 101 people tuned into the YouTube broadcast to watch the founders pitch their ideas.
Get Seeded is a regular milestone grant funding program open to all college students in Utah. The first step is to apply online. All university students in Utah are welcome to apply for grants.
Students requesting more than $500 follow a three-step process, concluding at the Final Pitch Event, where they pitch to an audience that votes on who gets funded. Students requesting $500 or less — called microgrants — are funded after a two-step process.
The program is managed by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah and sponsored by Chad and Kristen Anselmo.
Learn more about Get Seeded and apply for a grant here: lassonde.utah.edu/getseeded.
SlideKick Technologies (University of Utah) — $1,500
SlideKick provides a solution to turn any slide deck into a platform where the audience can interact with the content. The audience gets an improved experience and SlideKick provides analytics and metrics back to the presenter, so they can measure and improve their storytelling. SlideKick will be using their funds for rebranding.
Gaia Technologies (University of Utah) — $1,500
Gaia Technologies is a company that aims to produce and sell superior prosthetic components at affordable prices. The Myoplexer, their flagship product, is a sensor array that measures an amputee’s muscle shape to determine their intended prosthetic hand shape/position. Gaia Technologies intends to use their funding to purchase manufacturing equipment that will allow them to iterate and produce designs quickly and inexpensively.
OkWellThen (Brigham Young University) — $1,270
OkWellThen seeks to empower the common patient to make informed decisions about what treatments and medication they are willing to incur through providing an open-source portal to hospital treatments and costs. Their product is a web-based platform that accesses a database of anonymous, itemized healthcare-related receipts detailing services a patient received, which healthcare institution performed the service, insurance, and the grand total they were asked to pay. OkWellThen plans to use their funding to incentivize the submission of 500 receipts to begin building out their database for birth-related services.
Haven Rest (University of Utah) — $1,000
Haven Rest provides innovative sleeping solutions for families that camp or travel. The main product is a portable baby bed that comes with a cover and packs down into a small bag for easy carrying. While designed for the consumer market, the secondary purpose of the company is to donate/give back to families living in refugee camps. Haven Rest plans to use their funds to purchase prototypes for product testing.
