A Longmont-based startup is the winner of the eighth annual Denver Startup Week pitch competition.
GoodLove Foods is a celiac-friendly, gluten-free company manufacturing frozen biscuits, cinnamon rolls and puff pastry. The startup’s co-founders Chennelle Diong and her husband self-manufacture the products, cutting thousands of biscuits by hand.
GoodLove Foods acquired its 2,400-square-foot Longmont manufacturing facility last year from a gluten-free producer who was ready to leave the industry. GoodLove Foods has two more years on its lease and at least 2,000 square feet of space that isn’t dedicated to raw manufacturing, leaving plenty of room to grow.
“We always want to continue building that gluten-free community,” Diong said. “Finding space for myself was insanely hard. We were on the search for years. This space, we want to make sure that it’s always going to be 100% gluten-free. And so that’ll be like our next venture in terms of turning it into a commissary kitchen for others with gluten-free products.”
GoodLove Foods would need to get into a co-packer before opening the commissary kitchen, something Diong hopes will happen soon.
Other future plans include launching a dairy-free, vegan pizza crust. GoodLove Foods is currently prototyping this crust and plans to soft launch it for local customers in October.
Current GoodLove Foods products can be found at Leevers Locavore in Denver, The Stalk Market in Longmont and Lucky’s Market in Boulder and Fort Collins.
“We’ve achieved a velocity of about four to five cases or about 30 units per week per store but national distribution is our goal,” Diong said during her pitch.
Diong said the company has good momentum right now with a 400% year-over-year growth rate and is ready to scale, but that the company needs funding to grow. GoodLove Foods plans to raise a round of capital this year. Right now, all profits go back into the company, she said.
As winner of the DSW pitch competition, GoodLove Foods received goods and services valued at more than $48,0000, including a $2,000 cash prize from Caruso Ventures, $10,000 in AWS activate credits, a one-year membership with the Downtown Denver Partnership and design and tech support from Celerik.
The pitch competition was open to all Denver metro startups with less than $2 million in external funding. Out of the 75 startups who applied, eight made it to the final pitch competition on Sept. 21, including the winner of the DSW equity pitch and youth pitch competitions.
While GoodLove Foods took home gold, Denver-based BlackTravelBox and Denver-based The Cake Bar were named the second and third-place winners, respectively.
BlackTravelBox offers sustainable personal care products made with clean ingredients for Black travelers, including shampoo bars and body balm. The Cake Bar is a plant-based bakery located at 214 E. 13th Ave. in Denver. The Cake Bar also won DSW’s third annual equity pitch competition.
BlackTravelBox and The Cake Bar also received $5,000 in AWS activate credits, support from Celerik and other membership and coaching support.
All eight finalists received AWS Activate Credits as well.
In addition to GoodLove Foods, the final competitors ranged from a high school babysitting platform to a sustainable period care brand. Attendees and judges heard pitches from the following companies.
Good inTents aims to reimagine tents and transform the camping industry. The company has developed an inflatable, ADA-accessible tent with 7-foot-tall ceilings and an inflatable hinge door. The tent is made from recycled plastic and customers can select custom artwork for the outside — such as tie-die — rather than typical one-color options. Danielle Williams founded Good inTents in March 2022 and expects pre-sales to begin at the end of 2023.
Sunny Period is a renewable alternative to tampons. The company’s cup and applicator can be worn for five hours and can hold up to five times the amount of blood as a traditional tampon. According to co-founder Drew Jarvis, Sunny Period has raised $1.5 million to date and has reached $750,000 in pre-revenue. Jarvis said she wants Sunny Period to be a one-stop-shop for period care routine and has plans to offer wipes and different cup sizes and colors in the future.
Call Emmy is an online marketplace helping parents find on-demand services ranging from childcare and house cleaning to pet care, laundry and chores. The startup currently offers a business-to-business and business-to-consumer model but is in talks with large companies to roll out a B2B2C offering. Founded in 2021, Call Emmy tripled its revenue last year and is on track to close year three with $400,000 in revenue, founder and CEO Arezou Zarafshan said.
UnVale’s digital platform and display case allow creators to make, share and trade digital characters. Unlike most character digital platforms, UnVale isn’t built on the blockchain and doesn’t use non-fungible tokens. Unvale CEO and co-founder Casey Lawlor said prior to Unvale, there was no platform for character creation that combines social engagement with the visual and written content people want to display. The startup launched its marketplace for trades and purchases last month, which saw 600 listings and 140 confirmed trades.
Evergreen-based High School Babysitters was founded by Aspen Peterson as a way to make booking babysitters and finding babysitter jobs easier. Unlike Care.com, babysitters on High School Babysitters must be in high school and can sign up without being 18 years old (parents are required to verify a babysitter’s account). High School Babysitter, which launched its website a few months ago, also won DSW’s youth pitch competition this year.
