An hour away from the coworking spaces-a-plenty of Boulder stands Galvanize, Denver’s beloved coworking space, in the historic Rocky Mountain Bank Note Building. Since being founded in late 2010, Galvanize has welcomed entrepreneurs into its community as well as ushered through its first gSchool class just this year.
So much is going on within Galvanize this summer that we wanted to catch up with at least three Galvanize companies you should be sure to keep a close eye on over the coming months. Below are the highlights from Built In Denver’s Q&A sessions with each company.
[ibimage==22642==Medium==none==self==ibimage_align-left]
Roximity: is a location-based advertising platform. Customers tell the Roximity app what they’re into and then the app delivers awesome nearby deals and alerts straight to users’ phones.
Why they do what they do: “We were working with a lot of local businesses that wanted to drive real-time communication with their customers,” CEO Danny Newman said. “They were looking for ways to engage their existing customers and new customers that are nearby their physical location.” Newman and his team started working on that problem and, by 2012, Roximity was created.
Why you should watch them this summer: The 9-person Roximity team is in the middle of raising a Series A round, which will probably close within the next 30 or 60 days, Newman said. In addition, they are onboarding more national and local merchants.
Why they dig Galvanize: “We went through TechStars in Boulder last summer; the vibrancy and general energy that comes from working in a space like that is great,” Newman said. “We heard that Galvanize was coming and we were very excited to be a part of it; we were probably one of the first companies to jump in and join. We are really excited about Denver startups in general. It’s turning out the way we all predicted because of some great people really pushing the ecosystem forward.”
[ibimage==22643==Medium==none==self==ibimage_align-left]
MedPassage: is a medical device e-commerce platform, creating a direct link between buyers and sellers. Currently in beta with users secured on both the buying and selling side, MedPassage has agreements with surgery center management companies with an aggregated opportunity of 6 percent of the surgery center marketplace. “Not all are transacting,” Chief Marketing Officer Mike Biselli said. “That's why we are in beta: to continue to learn from the initial users then scale within this committed network. We are working with about 10 sites in this beta round.”
Why they do what they do: Change has to happen, Biselli said, in every industry. “We have watched technologies like this revolutionize other industries: for example, AutoTrader.com in the auto industry,” Biselli said. “Now, the time is for healthcare. Across the country, everyone understands that the healthcare industry is broken.”
Why Galvanize: MedPassage was part of the initial conversations during the creation of Galvanize and one of the first companies to move in. Biselli said that the best part about Galvanize has been its support system of like-minded people during tough situations that non-entrepreneurs don’t fully grasp. “I can’t even put it into words what it means to be a part of this organization,” Biselli said. “It keeps you fired up especially when you might be going through difficult things, as we all do as startups.”
Look out for them this summer because: With a $350,000 seed round secured under their belts eight months ago, the seven-person MedPassage team is now entering a $750,000 bridge round, which Biselli said will close in the next couple of months. Additionally, they are looking to “bolster up” their sales team in order to take advantage of every opportunity possible.
[ibimage==22644==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-left]
SupportLocal: is a non-traditional personal network through which local friends can recommend local businesses to one another. There are 27 million businesses in SupportLocal’s system and, on average, each SupportLocal user has recommended 14 businesses, CEO Justin Sanger said. “We already have many sales and nearly a thousand businesses have claimed their listing on SupportLocal.com, which we use for lead generation purposes,” Sanger said. “There are also thousands of recommendations in our system, namely in Denver where we are concentrating.”
Why they do what they do: They are filling a gap in the online recommendation sphere: Facebook friends don’t “like” their doctors and Yelp users’ reviews are hard to trust, Sanger said. Beyond that though, SupportLocal “is much more than just recommendations; it’s about community; it’s about businesses; it’s about friends.”
Why they are a startup to look out for: The seven-person SupportLocal team just launched its membership product last week. The enhanced Membership Profile on the site and the offline membership collateral enables businesses to receive more customer recommendations and show their support for their local community.
Galvanize works for them because: Sanger said Galvanize’s access to cohorts and mentors are fundamental to SupportLocal: “You can’t walk through the hall here without running into some sort of idea or opportunity.”
