The first place and $10,000 grand prize winner at the WTIA’s 2015 Fall First Look Forum was Awake Labs, developing Reveal, a wearable device to measure anxiety for children with autism to predict and prevent behavior meltdowns from happening.  A committee of VC and Angel Investor judges selected the company, founded by Andrea Palmer and Robert Merki, on Nov. 12 at Whatcom Community College.

“[Winning this]  means quite a lot, it allows us to buy off the shelf hardware, work on our MVP, something we had been working on for a while… The coaches and the network were amazing. They were able to introduce us to other startups, other angel investors… It’s a great place to get started,” said Andrea Palmer, Co-founder and CEO of Awake Labs.

First Look Forum is both a coaching program and presentation showcase for early stage start-ups. Companies are paired up with mentors, pitch doctors and presentation coaches in preparation for the big showcase.

“I really liked it. I think we had an even better set of companies this year than last… They were all good companies. It was a bit like comparing apples and oranges, trying to pick a winner… A lot of these people could have won,” said Glen Butler, the Board Chair at Bellingham Angel Group

Joining Awake Labs in the top four finishers were ACME Farms + Kitchen, eSecondOpinion, and JumpstartCSR.

Meet the 2015 Fall First Look Forum  top four finalists:

1. ACME Farms + Kitchen (Bellingham) – making it simple for families to shop, cook and eat local. Unique model efficiently moves large amounts of local food and benefits both the small artisan producers and the customer.
2. Awake Labs (Vancouver, BC) – developing Reveal, a wearable device to measure anxiety for children with autism to predict and prevent behavior meltdowns from happening.
3. eSecondOpinion (Seattle) – credible online alternatives to Western medicine; like WebMD, but with personal coaches and advocates.
4. JumpStartCSR (Seattle) – a hardware-enabled SaaS integrating Health-Wellness-Fitness (HWF) through artificial intelligence, wearables, and groupware.

Check out the list of the First Look Forum finalists and semifinalists.

Big thank you to our volunteers!

Amy Sallin, Assistant Director – Buerck Center for Entrepreneurship

Heidi Wilson, Volunteer Project Manager – NW Innovation Resource Center

Meg Weber, Executive Director – TAGNW

 

Coaches:

Brett Greene, Co-Founder/CEO – New Tech Seattle, Eastside and Tacoma

Chris Jacobs, Founder/President – Portional

Connie Miller, Pitch Presentation Skills Coach – CleanTech Open

Derrick Morton, CEO – FlowPlay

Dave Gandara, Founder & CEO | Senior Level Financial & Advisory Consultant – Gandara Strategic Consulting

Garland Sharratt, Senior Product Manager, ICT Technology Specialist, Business Advisor

Howard Gross, Principal Consultant – Howard Gross Consulting

Janis Machala, Senior Business Executive and Entrepreneur

Jerry LaChapelle, Serial Entrepreneur, Inventor, Leader, Coach and Mentor

Josh Lee, Entrepreneur Director Northwest Region, Keiretsu Forum

Josh Maher, Author and Investor

Omar Rivas, Disruptive Thinker, Speaker, Coach and and Advisor

Murray Laidley, Independent Technology Executive

Phillip Stein, Business Consultant

Rebecca Connor, Director – Lighter Capital

Rod Proctor, Principal – Proctor Consulting

Shanika Weerasundara, CEO, Founding Attorney – Teqlaa Corporation

Tom Doll, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing – APANA

Chaitra Vedullapalli, CMO – Meylah

 

Judges:

George K. Saul, Investor, Board Member – RapidV & Cadence Biomedical, Inc.

Glenn Butler, Board Chair – Bellingham Angel Group

John Janicki, President – Janicki Industries

 

Committee members:

Bolin Bornstein – Bornstein Seafoods, Inc.

Kha Dang – Perkins Cole

Troy DeFrank – Consulate General of Canada (Seattle)

Steve Fisher – Foster Pepper

Geir Hansen – Silicon Valley Bank

John Jerome – Jerome and Associates

Diane Kamionka – NWIRC

Murray Laidley – MIN-NS

Dan Li – Madrona Venture Group

Josh Maher – Seattle Angel Conference

Michael Nordtvedt – WSGR

Frank Paterra – Amazon Web Services

Michael Schutzler – WTIA

Joseph Whitford – Davis, Wright, Tremaine

 

First Look Forum sponsors include:

Davis, Wright, Tremaine

Deloitte

NW Innovation Resource Center