The MKE Tech Hub Coalition has named the winners of this year’s Reverse Pitch MKE event, a pitching competition that asks entrepreneurs to solve a known critical industry challenge. This year’s finalists include:
- InOn Health of Denver, Colorado: A digital health solution aimed at improving access to health services and information through adaptive communication.
- MoSAYcity: An EvidaSolve product that simplifies and accelerates relationship building by removing barriers in hybrid, dispersed and global workplaces. EvidaSolve is based in Geneva, New York.
- Araqev: A software solution for closed-loop, smart control in additive manufacturing and 3D printing based on machine learning. Company leadership is based in West Lafayette, Indiana.
- Pythonic: A Milwaukee-based company that focuses the power of state-of-the-art machine learning on documents to automate specific classification, extraction, review and document routing tasks. Pythonic is a past Reverse Pitch MKE winner.
This year’s competition asked each small business to solve one of seven challenges: community health literacy and trust from Froedtert; supporting responsible financial representative social media use from Northwestern Mutual; expanding the relationship-based culture at Northwestern Mutual; identifying in-field devices from Rockwell Automation; leveraging raw material data for prescriptive manufacturing from Rockwell Automation; creating a coverage verifier from West Bend Mutual; and decision to order property inspection from West Bend Mutual.
Froedtert selected the InOn Health solution to address the challenge of improving health literacy and trust in our communities.
“InOn Health has a unique approach to delivering health information to our communities through an approach of deep cultural awareness and personalization,” said Mike Anderes, chief digital officer for Froedtert Health.
Northwestern Mutual selected MoSAYcity as its relationship-based culture challenge winner because of the startup’s “tremendous promise to build the tools that will help foster a stronger culture of connection in the workplace, a trend that aligns squarely with Northwestern Mutual’s values and commitment during this time of transformation,” said Avani Patel, the company’s senior director of digital innovation.
Rockwell Automation selected a winner for each of their challenges. Araqev was selected as the winner of the “leveraging raw material data for prescriptive manufacturing” challenge and Pythonic won the “identifying in-field devices” challenge.
West Bend Mutual also selected Pythonic as their challenge winner.
“(Pythonic has) potential to bring customers closer to us through a robust product able to simplify communication and increase knowledge for our customers,” said Marc Emery, assistant vice president of commercial lines, West Bend Mutual Insurance.
Each winner received a $10,000 cash prize; strategic planning sessions with Aurora WD; co-working space from Expansive Workspace; finance, accounting, HR and tax consulting with Trivium; legal services provided by Godfrey & Khan S.C.; and access to corporate mentors and networks to help take their emerging businesses to the next stage.
