Sure the latest initiatives from the Teslas, Apple and Googles of the industry tend to dominate the tech news space — and with good reason. Still, the tech titans aren’t the only ones bringing innovation to the sector.
In an effort to highlight up-and-coming startups, Built In has launched The Future 5 across 11 major U.S. tech hubs. Each quarter, we will feature five tech startups, nonprofits or entrepreneurs in each of these hubs who just might be working on the next big thing. You can check out last year’s round-up here.
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While big funding rounds tend to dominate tech news headlines, there are many emerging players in the Colorado tech world who are self-funded or in the early stages of funding.
Adding to our list of Future 5 startups from last quarter, Built In Colorado is celebrating the close of the second quarter by highlighting another five early-stage companies that have not yet raised a Series A funding round. Read on to learn about these companies in our Future 5 round-up.
BUILT IN’S FUTURE 5 UP-AND-COMING Colorado STARTUPS, Q2 2022
- Chamba (HR Tech)
- Helio Home (Greentech)
- Rescripted (Healthtech)
- The Mintable (Edtech)
- Wednesday (HR Tech)
Chamba claims to have developed the first app in English and Spanish to help Hispanic workers find a job — and to help companies connect with Latinx and Hispanic employees or bilingual employees who can speak English and Spanish.
Chamba is a nationwide platform, but its highest concentration of activity is in California, New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois.
The platform has built its foundation on blue-collar jobs in manufacturing, restaurants and other service industries, but CEO Diego Montemayor said he envisions the platform evolving to accommodate upwardly-mobile Latinx professionals.
Denver startup Helio Home helps homeowners electrify their homes and achieve a net-zero carbon footprint.
By asking the homeowner a few questions and pulling in data about the home, Helio Home’s software can remotely calculate the home’s heating, cooling and electrical loads. From there, the company can develop a complete plan of action, including solar panels, heating and cooling, electrical systems, insulation and ventilation.
Since launching in the fall of 2021, Helio Home has raised $4 million in seed funding and electrified 35 homes in the Denver metro area. As the company’s processes and technology mature, it plans to expand throughout Colorado.
In the wake of a miscarriage, complicated pregnancy and overall stressful experience with IVF, Abby Mercado decided to address the lack of information about the IVF world. She developed Best Shot, a medication management platform designed to help those going through the IVF process.
To reach more people, Mercado then partnered with Kristyn Hodgdon, who started a fertility content platform called The Fertility Tribe, to create a merged company called Rescripted.
In addition to blogs and video content, the Rescripted platform also contains a social media network, product marketplace and digital pharmacy with medication management tools. It has become the number one global media platform for fertility, infertility and pregnancy loss, Mercado told Built In.
While managing customer success and operations teams at HR tech platform Gusto, Melissa Miller and Lauren Humphrey bonded over their shared interest in the importance of good managers.
To address what they felt was the most important factor in a company’s success, Miller and Humphrey developed a community-based learning platform that includes a four-week, cohort-based virtual learning accelerator, as well as other tools, such as meeting templates and manager checklists.
Humphrey, the startup’s CEO, said in a statement that The Mintable attempts to address the day-to-day challenges of managers in a practical way. It has raised $5 million in seed funding and plans to use the funds to grow its sales, product and engineering teams.
While many companies have slick videos touting their organization’s culture, Jeremy Hamel thinks job seekers are searching for a more raw, authentic look at their prospective employer.
Hamel is the co-founder and CEO of Wednesday, a platform that allows job seekers to watch a company’s employees answer questions about the role, the team or the culture in pre-recorded, selfie-style videos.
Hamel believes that Wednesday’s videos will not only engage more applicants but also weed out any uninterested or unqualified applicants so that only the highest quality candidates are interviewed. The platform also provides data insights about how candidates were referred to the website, which topics they found most interesting and which of the team members they enjoyed the most.
