We’ve had many stellar presenters at New Tech meetings over the last few years. From our very first presenter, Zumobi, to his week’s introduction to Rivetz at New Tech Eastside, we’ve been given the opportunity to get a bird’s eye look at the challenges and opportunities faced by Seattle-area startups.
As 2018 draws to a close, we thought it might be fun to take a look back at three of our presenters from a year ago and see where they are 12+months later.
Pillsy unveiled its smart pill bottle cap in May 2017. The goal: to help patients better manage, dispense and be compliant with medication protocols. The bottle cap (and its accompanying app) gives care providers access to dosage data and delivers reminders to patients who may have forgotten to take a medication.
Jumpstart Capital made an investment in the company in late 2017, believing that smart packaging is the wave of the future. Last month, Pillsy was named a key player in the smart bottle market by analysts at Flor Markets and its product was discussed in Modern Healthcare earlier this year – meaning that Pillsy’s offerings are moving out of the early adopter phase and into the mainstream.
Azuqua, a company that helps people connect their SaaS applications and create powerful custom automations, had a record year in 2017 with over 65 percent growth in new customers and a 50 percent growth in headcount.
That kind of meteoric rise comes with some challenges, and in 2018, the company experienced a change in its management team. Todd Owens joined as CEO, while CTO and co-founder, Craig Unger, left to pursue other opportunities. Since then, Unger successfully founded HyperProof, a startup specializing in automating enterprise compliance via the cloud.
Common Fibers is one of the many area startups that believed it could build a better mousetrap…and did. The founders took one of the building blocks of modern manufacturing, carbon fiber, and figured out how to ablate the resin to add composite hinges into the laminate.
Today, the company offers any number of products that feature end-to-end carbon fiber, from wallets to phone cases. You can even order carbon fiber business cards via the company store website.
There are many more success stories in our community. My question to you: will YOUR startup be one that we write about in 2019? If you’d like to be a presenter at an upcoming New Tech Northwest gathering, contact us here.
