Start Madness Is Now Finished With Its Madness

MarketDial wins. BlueMatador also wins.

Last night six finalists competed in the Start Madness finale in the Grand Ballroom at the Salt Palace.

Representatives from the six remaining companies, pitched their passions in the hopes of winning the first place prize of $200,000, the second place prize of $100,000, or the audience choice prize of 6 months of a dedicated desk at Church and State.

Matthew Barlocker from Blue Matador pitched first, explaining their DevOps business to the judges and the putter-upper of the prize money, Kickstart Seed Fund and Epic Ventures.

Next, Josh Carter from Portland-based company Bright Work pitched their API deployment platform. Because Bright Work is based in Portland, we have not written about them here. But here’s their website.

Then Riley Adamson of Checkup, the software for follow-up call management and fulfillment, explained how they can ensure the safety and wellbeing of elderly outpatients.

Founder of Fuze Interactive, Kristy Sevy, showed how the Zubi Flyer can enhance STEM education for the curious child.

Johnny Hanna of Homie, pitched his highly disruptive real estate buying and selling platform, you know, the one that’s making the industry send cease and desist letters.

And finally, Morgan Davis of MarketDial explained his A/B testing platform designed for brick-and-mortar retailers.

Then the judges deliberated while the audience tweeted their votes. After a few moments the judges emerged from their secret judging chambers.

Jason Garcia and Gary Jackson from Silicon Valley Bank presented the audience choice award to Homie. Then Gavin Christensen from Kickstart Seed Fund presented the second place prize, an enormous $100,000, check to Blue Matador.

“We’re ecstatic. We’re excited. We know that we have stumbled on idea, but we’re very excited to have it validated another way,” said Matthew Barlocker. “We’re going to hire developers and we’re going to look at getting some more business expertise,” he added.

Then…Chris Calder from Epic Ventures presented the first place prize and a giant check for $200,000 to….is the anticipation killing you?….No, it’s not, because I already told you who won in the article subtitle….okay fine….to MarketDial!

“We are so happy that we won,” Morgan Davis said. “While it will certainly help bring on new teammates and cover expenses, we’re most excited about how this will help us continue to support our customers.

Quick reminder, both Morgan Davis and Johnny Stoddard benefited from my Tutelage while I selflessly worked as their manager at Brainstorm. So, when Davis said, “We have a lot of people to thank,” I knew he meant me.

“It’s clear to all of us on the team that we wouldn’t be here without incredible support from our family, friends, investors, and the broader startup community here in Utah,” Davis added.