In 2024, the judges panel for the AZ Inno Fire Awards named co-winners in the Inno Pick category: Sinatra and PitchCom.
Scottsdale-based startup Sinatra was founded in 2021 by young entrepreneur Adam Laor and Brian Pierce, a hospitality industry veteran, to hasten food pick-up times at restaurants. The business partners later saw potential for technology to boost efficiency, savings and training in the hospitality industry.
They created an all-in-one hospitality training platform and expanded its features last year to help insurance carriers measure and mitigate risk in the hospitality industry, while providing technology for business owners to monitor employee and guest safety.
Laor told AZ Inno that the product expansion was prompted by rapid growth of Sinatra's client base, which grew from 45 establishments to more than 1,000 last summer.
Sinatra also tapped insurance and hospitality industry leader David DeLorenzo to join its executive team.
Sinatra has raised more than $2.5 million in capital from investors that include 1517 Fund, Illinois Casualty Co., entrepreneur Eric Ries and former executives at Toast, Opendoor and Snapchat.
AZ Inno highlighted Sinatra as a company poised for growth in 2023 in its annual Startups to Watch report.
Inno Picks Co-winner: PitchCom
Business partners John Hankins and Craig Filicetti developed a push-button wearable transmitter that allows baseball pitchers and catchers to communicate plays to each other, replacing traditional hand signals and preventing sign-stealing.
Major League Baseball approved PitchCom’s transmitters for league play in 2022 and now all 30 teams are using them. The company also signed a multiyear agreement with the MLB for use of its transmitters in Minor League Baseball. In addition, PitchCom’s devices are used in college baseball.
Last year, Time magazine named PitchCom among the top 200 inventions of 2023. That same year, the National Federation of State High School Associations announced a rule change allowing electronic communication between a coach in the dugout and an on-field catcher, paving the way for PitchCom transmitters to potentially be used in high school baseball.
Now, PitchCom is working with companies to companies to develop automatic ball-strike calling technology and gathering data to boost accuracy of baseball pitch tracking. The company has garnered interest in its PitchCom technology from restaurants, fire departments and other sports leagues, but baseball will continue to be its main focus, Filicetti told AZ Inno earlier this year.
AZ Inno named PitchCom a Startup to Watch in 2024.
Inno Pick category finalists:
Beyond Silicon
- Headquarters: Tempe
- CEO: Jason Yu
- Founded: 2021
- What it does: Beyond Silicon is a U.S. startup developing a perovskite-on-silicon tandem cell that has the potential to surpass the efficiency limit of standard silicon solar cells.
FreePower
- Headquarters: Phoenix
- CEO: Jake Slatnick
- Founded: 2017
- What it does: FreePower makes wireless technology that can be embedded in countertops. It holds more than 220 patent assets for its hardware, software and magnetics.
Glomensio
- Headquarters: Scottsdale
- CEO: Gaurav Batta
- Founded: 2021
- What they do: Glomensio created a device that detects 911 calls and triggers exterior house numbers to flash red and blue so emergency personnel can easily find the location of emergencies.
Pawport
- Headquarters: Phoenix
- CEO: Martin Diamond
- Founded: 2019
- What it does: Pawport created a steel and aluminum pet door slides onto either a new or existing pet door frame, creating a weather-resistant seal that keeps out unwanted pests and saves energy.
