3 Colorado companies remain in race to Richard Branson's island lair

by Anthony Sodd
November 30, 2015

The race to Richard Branson’s private island lair continues, and three Colorado tech companies are among the last 10 in the running. 

The Extreme Tech Challenge announced yesterday the 10 finalists that would be pitching Sir Richard Branson live on stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The finalists have been whittled down from over a thousand global entries. The eventual winners will be invited to fly to Richard Branson’s private Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.  

The three Colorado companies still in the competition are:

, which crowdfunds inventory for vetted businesses; Sphero, makers of app enabled robots; and, the cannabis-themed social network. and made it into the 25 finalists, but were cut from this round.

The Extreme Tech Challenge is a global pitch competition with all the pomp and reality show pizzaz you’d expect from a Richard Branson event. Its tagline, for example, is ‘cause big sharks should not be kept in a tank.’ 

Yet, as much as you may want to roll your eyes, the Challenge pulls in some huge names in tech. People like Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Show and David Cohen, Founder and CEO of Techstars will be among the event’s impressive list of judges. 

It may not be a Nobel Prize, but I doubt many Colorado companies would turn down a trip to the Virgin Islands in February. 

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