3 Colorado Springs startups each earn $45,000 in competition
Oct. 14—Three Colorado Springs startup companies lit a spark for innovation as their businesses each earned $45,000 Torch Grants this week.
Dr. Tom Duening, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, founded Torch Grants as an initiative to attract and retain young companies in the Pikes Peak region.
"The research clearly states that startups are one of the greatest job creators in any economic region," Duening said. "If we want to foster continued growth in Colorado Springs, we need a robust startup ecosystem."
The Torch Grant winners, Salt Athletic, LeadFoot Racing and Defender Imports, competed against other startups for the grants in a pitch-style competition.
Startups present 10-minute presentations to a venture panel of unaffiliated judges. The top five continue onto the Torch Grants Finals, where companies again give 10-minute pitches to a new panel of judges.
In order to be eligible for the competition, companies were required to participate in educational training with the Venture Attractor: Scale to $1M Boot-Up Camp, a 16-week virtual entrepreneurship course paired with rigorous, one- on-one mentorship for companies in the sport/outdoors, human performance and health innovation sector. The Venture Attractor is a university-based research program of the El Pomar Institute of Innovation & Commercialization.
Salt Athletic is a sports technology company focused on "integrating material technology-based solutions to develop premium athletic bags to the highest aesthetic and quality standards." Salt Athletic's first product is aērcase, a soccer cleat bag that features its patent-pending "smell-proof" technology.
LeadFoot Racing is a business aimed at helping people safely and affordably enter the racing industry with a race vehicle that combines a handful of common automotive parts with a custom chassis and a motorcycle.
Defender Imports is a company that imports and restores classic Land Rover Defenders.
