Three teams win BIG — Go Code Colorado 2017

Three teams walk away with a $25,000 contract from the state and a sponsor incentive package

DENVER, May 25, 2017 -- Go Code Colorado, an award-winning program that turns public data into business insights, last night announced the three winning teams that impressed judges during Go Code Colorado’s final competition.

Drip, Hud Buddy and Magpie Supply emerged victorious with their apps that addressed water discovery and analysis, noise analysis for HUD development and improved access to local and sustainable food products. These teams won amongst a competitive field of participants that started with 43 teams made up of 240 participants – both records for the program.

"I continue to be impressed by the creativity and collaboration of the Go Code Colorado teams," said Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams. "Teams continue to show the value of public data if we can get it into the hands of innovative and entrepreneurial people who have a different perspective on how to use it."

"The enthusiasm for Go Code Colorado has grown from year to year, and the 2017 competition was no different," Williams said. "I’m looking forward to how Drip, Hud Buddy and Magpie Supply continue to develop their ideas beyond the competition."

Drip, Hud Buddy and Magpie Supply emerged from the challenge weekend, April 1-3, and the mentor weekend, April 21-23 to the final competition event where they presented to five stalwart judges alongside seven other finalist teams. The judges had the difficult task of choosing only three teams for contracts with the state, with criteria that focused on how teams demonstrated innovative use of public data, app feasibility, and attractiveness to the marketplace, as well as creating genuine value for business decision-makers.

"I have been a final event judge for two of the last four years and it’s never easy to choose only three teams," said Ingrid Alongi founder of Quick Left. "It’s interesting to see how ideas change based on what’s happening in Colorado. Two years ago teams presented a lot of ideas centered around traffic on I-70 traffic, and this year, many teams focused on helping rural communities as our population in metro regions continue to grow."

The three teams that won and their app and business ideas are:

Drip (Colorado Springs)

Created a platform that will streamline the effort required to track down numerous sources of water and environmental data that affects the value of land. During their presentation, Drip focused on the resources and cost associated with finding this information without their platform and demonstrated a real value proposition for their company.

"We have personally experienced the pain associated with finding water information and have the support from our community to continue development of Drip," said Tim Haynie of Drip.

Hud Buddy (Fort Collins)

Developed a solution to perform noise analysis for HUD residential developments, allowing developers to more easily comply with regulations. Without Hud Buddy, developers pay thousands of dollars for a noise analysis of a potential development site; now they can use Hud Buddy to perform the analysis remotely with the click of a button.

"We have industry experts on our team that understand the real challenges involved in developing HUD housing and we believe that our solution will not only streamline the process for developers but also be an extremely valuable tool for consultants assisting developers," said Joshua Leasure of Hud Buddy.

Magpie Supply (Denver)

Created a platform to help farmers search historic farmers’ market prices on a map and show farmers various markets in the state to identify new opportunities. Magpie Supply identified during their presentation that they will be adding a feature for small farmers to combat the cost of transporting goods.

"This idea is a spin-off from a business concept I worked on last year with a Go Code Colorado team," said Daniel Ritchie of Magpie Supply. "Our team has worked hard to identify the real needs and concerns for Colorado farmers to develop a truly valuable tool to get more produce to market."

About Go Code Colorado: Go Code Colorado is a statewide business app challenge housed in Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams’ office. The award-winning challenge – the first and only statewide effort of its kind – brings together a community of entrepreneurs, business partners and software developers to use public data to solve business problems. Many private sector organizations support Go Code Colorado, including the 2017 challenge summit partner, AT&T.