As people become increasingly comfortable with the sharing economy, there's little in our daily life that hasn't been 'Uberfied.'
From cars to homes, pet care and food delivery, the sharing economy is thriving.
What about all that extra stuff you have that just won't fit in your apartment?
STOWED, a peer-to-peer storage marketplace, is looking to solve the storage problem, using the sharing economy to do so. STOWED connects users seeking storage solutions with people that have extra space and want to earn additional income.
The startup took home the $7,500 first-place prize at CU Denver's THE CLIMB Pitch Night in late April as they prepare to launch in Boulder.
“We are so excited for what’s next for STOWED,” CU Denver student Peter Boardman said in a release. “This year, we plan to take what we learned from THE CLIMB and launch a limited market release in Boulder. From there, we’ll optimize the platform and hone our marketing strategy to grow into other areas throughout the country.”
Boardman, along with Whitney Setterberg Pappas and Daniel Thompson are the team behind STOWED.
In addition to STOWED, five other teams of college entrepreneurs pitched at the event, vying for cash prizes. Judges for THE CLIMB included, Jake Jabs, president and CEO of American Furniture Warehouse; Michael Potts, managing partner of Advance Wave Partners; Stephanie McCoy, COO of Wazee Street Capital Management; and Tyler Coates, senior vice president of enterprise at Zayo.
FulPHILing Financial, a full-service financial firm specialized in serving the special needs community, took home the second place prize of $5,000. CampCrate, a rentable kit for backpacking trips, camping and festivals, won the $1,500 Dean’s Innovation Award and all-in-one travel booking platform Trevele won the $1,000 People Choice Award.
In addition to the pitches, Caleb Carr, president and CEO of Vita Inclinata Technologies, addressed the crowd to share his startup's success since winning THE CLIMB last year. The aerospace company develops stability solutions for helicopter hoisting and sling load missions.
“We started with $0 in my bank account last year,” said Carr. “And this week, we closed our series A round of funding at $80 million. We couldn’t have done this without CU Denver.”
Click here for more on The Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship’s 18th Annual THE CLIMB.
