Sacramento app company LogRx Inc. plans to use the prize money it won in the Pitch Elk Grove contest to market its product that helps first responders track use of controlled substances in the field.
LogRx took home the $10,000 top prize in Elk Grove's third annual startup pitch contest last week, which the city uses to introduce local tech companies to Elk Grove and its startup programs.
“Brand awareness is crucial. We need to get in front of our audience. We need to let them know we exist,” said LogRx CEO Clive Savacool.
The LogRx app makes any Android or Apple device into a scanner and GPS tracker that can time-stamp, log and record the use of controlled substances in the field. It helps first responders track use of medications by sending that required information to the cloud when the phone or device has connectivity.
It’s important because losing track of controlled substances can mean the revocation of the ability to carry them. Under federal law, many medications must be accounted for at every shift change and every time they are used. Much of that tracking currently is pen and paper.
The company's target customers are fire crews, police and ambulance companies, and it has expanded to veterinary and wildlife services, who must track meds administered to animals.
LogRx now has 240 customers, and is planning to raise money from investors in a seed round soon to increase marketing, Savacool said. The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to soon mandate better and increased tracking of controlled substances, and LogRx with more market awareness will be in a better position to sign new customers, Savacool said.
“We want to strike while the iron is hot,” he said.
LogRx grew through word-of-mouth marketing after it started in 2016, but it remained largely a side-gig project for a few years. In 2022, Savacool quit his job as a fire chief to lead the company full time. It hired its first marketing officer last year.
The app costs customers $35 per month.
LogRx was one of eight finalists to pitch in the Elk Grove startup contest.
“It really was some amazing competition,” Savacool said. “I think what we had going for us is that we are easy to understand.”
Contest judges included members of the Sacramento Angels investing group and representatives of Folsom-based venture capital firm Moneta Ventures.
The other winners in Elk Grove included Happy Ladders, an El Dorado Hills company that developed an intervention platform for parents of children with developmental needs. It won the second-place $5,000 cash prize. West Sacramento-based parking technology company Japa Inc. won the third-place $2,500 cash prize, and AI-assisted matchmaking company ValleyMatch won the $2,500 Elk Grove-based company prize.
“We’re thrilled to see such strong participation from across the region,” said Darrell Doan, Elk Grove economic development director, in a news release.
The event this year drew a crowd of about 150, said Laura Good, CEO of StartupSac, which handles the programming of Pitch Elk Grove for the city. The city got a record 62 applicants for the startup competition this year.
Elk Grove uses the pitch contest as an economic development tool to introduce the startup community to the city and its finance programs like the Startup Elk Grove Incentive Program, which launched in 2018 and offers direct cash subsidies to startup companies based in the city.
