Go Code Colorado selects finalists for 2018 competition

Finalists from Challenge Weekend events in Colorado Springs, Denver, Durango, Fort Collins and Grand Junction receive $2,500 each and advance to the final competition event, with three $15,000 awards at stake.

DENVER, April 16, 2018 — Go Code Colorado, an award-winning program that challenges multidisciplinary teams to turn public data into business insights, today announced the 10 finalist teams that advanced from Challenge Weekend held in five cities across the state over the weekend.

Two teams from each of the five Challenge Weekend sites – Colorado Springs, Denver, Durango, Fort Collins and Grand Junction – will receive $2,500. Next, the teams will participate in Go Code Colorado’s expenses-paid Mentorship Weekend, April 27-29th in Boulder, on their way to compete in the June 7th Final Competition event.

The competition, run by Secretary of State Wayne W. Williams’ office, challenges data analysts, entrepreneurs, technologists and innovators to build tools that deliver public data into the hands of business decision makers.

Mentor Weekend provides an opportunity for all 10 teams to receive mentorship by leaders from Boomtown, CA Technologies, Google, House of Genius, Twitter and other bright minds from Colorado’s tech and entrepreneurial community.

“In Go Code Colorado’s fifth year, participants continue to inspire with their creative ideas for turning public data into business insights,” said Wayne Williams, Colorado secretary of state. “With more public data available than ever before, teams expanded the boundaries for their concepts, addressing a wide variety of topics and showing the value public data can deliver for Colorado businesses.”

Almost 200 individuals competed statewide, building tools and constructing insights with their teammates, coding and analyzing data. The two advancing  teams from each location showed their innovative prowess with ideas that demonstrated feasibility and attractiveness to the marketplace, utilized data to create impactful value for business decision-makers, and set new standards in innovation for Colorado businesses. Teams are able to use the $2,500 from Challenge Weekend as seed money while they work their way toward the Final Competition Event, where three teams will be selected to receive $15,000 each. No matter how a team finishes or where they take their ideas, they all know they’ll walk away with lasting relationships, valuable experience, and most of all inspiration.

The advancing teams and their ideas are:

Colorado Springs

• Abodio aims to simplify and streamline the process of planning and building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) for homeowners and contractors by creating a comprehensive database of building codes, zoning laws, ordinances and individual parcel data related to ADUs.
• Foodu is building a marketplace in which food trucks, venues and consumers can connect with each other, faster and more easily.

Denver

• TotSpots provides insights to child care owners and operators for business development.
• WaffleFarms empowers local agricultural organizations addressing food insecurity in urban areas by providing data-driven insights to inform key decisions surrounding land access, community needs and funding.

Durango

• Felix identifies communities compatible for people living with specific disabilities through community health heat maps.
• FLC Designs assists businesses in navigation of state-funded financial incentives for transitioning vehicle fleets to financially-advantageous alternative-fuel vehicles.

Fort Collins

• Carbos uses Blockchain technology and public data to bring the carbon trading marketplace to local communities.
• TradeUp connects local employers with trade schools to improve the post-secondary-education-to-employee pipeline, while concurrently providing schools with consistent relationships to keep curriculum current to industry needs.

Grand Junction

• Business Incentive connects businesses to funding sources from city, county, state and federal levels.
• Glass Roots provides visual insights for last-mile providers of broadband design and deployment.

These 10 finalist teams will meet again April 27-29th in Boulder with Go Code Colorado partners: Boomtown, CA Technologies, Google, House of Genius and Twitter. The teams will further develop their insights and tools in preparation for the Final Competition Event June 7th at the Denver Performing Arts Center. During the final event, three winning teams will be selected by a panel of judges to receive $15,000 per team.

For more information regarding the Go Code Colorado Final Event please visit: http://gocode.colorado.gov/events/final-event-2018/

About Go Code Colorado: Go Code Colorado is a statewide competition to use public data to build useful insights and tools for Colorado businesses. The competition is housed in Colorado Secretary of State Wayne W. Williams’ office. Since 2014 hundreds of developers, designers, business and marketing professionals, analysts, entrepreneurs and other big thinkers have participated in the award-winning challenge – the first and only statewide effort of its kind.