Birmingham swept the Alabama Launchpad business startup competition this most recent round, as both the concept track winner (Pointz) and the seed stage winner (O3 Solution) are both based in the Magic City. The Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA) spoke with Pointz founder and CEO Andrew Petrovics and O3 Solution CEO Josh Girvin about their respective wins and how Birmingham has shaped their company.
Andrew Petrovics, founder and CEO of Pointz, who won $50,000
BBA: Describe your business in your own words.
AP: Pointz is a rewards app designed to get people to spend more time at local brick and mortar businesses. The way it works is users download the app, turn on Bluetooth and get points every time they spend 30 minutes or more at a local business. They don’t have to check in or even take their phone out of their pocket. They get so many points and can redeem points for awesome rewards. Soon we will offer even better rewards like Barons tickets, gift cards to local restaurants and bars, t-shirts, and a lot of really good, interesting, fun rewards.
BBA: Why did you enter the Alabama Launchpad competition?
AP: It was a really good opportunity to get exposure and get feedback from really smart business people. I entered for networking reasons and capital reasons and to grow the startup.
BBA: How did it feel to win?
AP: It felt good! I wasn’t expecting it. There were a lot of really great companies and it was a great surprise to me. Launchpad is definitely a lot of work, and it was good all that work didn’t go to waste. I was very humbled.
BBA: What is your company’s mission?
AP: The whole mission of Pointz, the whole goal is for more people to spend more time at local businesses. Everyone wants to support local businesses, but often don’t, even though universally it is agreed it is a good thing. We wanted to make it easier for more people to spend more time at local businesses. I’m a tech guy and I like building cool products that people use. That’s where my passion is at.
BBA: How has being a Birmingham-based company shaped your business?
AP: The community. There is no way I would be where I am now without the communities of Innovation Depot, Velocity Accelerator and all of the mentors I have had like Bob Crutchfield, Nate Schmidt, Tony Summerville and hundreds more. I’ve been in the right place at the right time to work with Innovation Depot and the community there. I love the community and the support – every person in Birmingham wants tech startups to happen. That’s why I’m in Birmingham.
BBA: What is next for your company?
AP: The app that is up now is the beta launch, we’ve just never called it that. We are going to launch very soon and do a full-on launch in Birmingham. We are making a few big changes to the app and the rewards, and we’ll do a full-scale launch in Birmingham soon. That’s the next step and I’m excited. We’ll hopefully launch by the end of the summer.
Josh Girvin, CEO of O3 Solution, who won $100,000
BBA: Describe your business in your own words.
JG: O3 is a SaaS Agile Project Management Solution built specifically for the industrial construction market. We enable clients to transition from traditional waterfall project management to a modern agile project management process and then continue to monitor the health and success of their projects through our analytics engine. We offer three main value propositions of alignment, collaboration and analytics. Our alignment module enables complex projects to coordinate data across multiple stakeholders and solutions by correlating information using a common naming convention that links one set of data to another and shows the relationships between them. Our collaboration module manages the interfaces between systems and stakeholders and flags potential issues before they happen. Our analytics module provides real-time feedback in the form of leading indicators and insights that enables continuous improvement on a project and across a portfolio of projects for an entire enterprise. Most importantly, those indicators facilitate decision making and allow users to take action immediately by assigning and managing tasks proactively in the application.
BBA: Why did you enter the Alabama Launchpad competition?
JG: We are excited to be part of the growing startup community and felt like Alabama Launchpad was a great opportunity to test our messaging with people outside of our industry. We were interested to get feedback on our pitch and product and felt it would help us make improvements moving forward. And of course we appreciated that the winnings would include funds to help us continue to grow and access to a network of people who could provide guidance and suggestions for improvement.
BBA: How did it feel to win?
JG: It felt very rewarding to have others recognize the value of the hard work and effort the whole team has invested in making O3 a successful business. It was also validating to know that our message and the problem we are trying to solve is resonating with others outside our space.
BBA: What is your company’s vision?
JG: Our vision is to challenge the status quo in the construction industry by inventing new ways to solve old problems, to maximize returns for our shareholders and to ensure happiness for our employees. We have a culture of excellence, to strive to be the best and provide the highest quality product for our clients.
BBA: How has being a Birmingham-based company shaped your business?
JG: The Birmingham entrepreneurial ecosystem has been very supportive. It’s an exciting time to be part of the innovative and passionate group of people who are working together to grow businesses, are supportive of one another and who want to make Birmingham a great place to start a new company.
BBA: What is next for your company?
JG: We are thrilled to represent Birmingham as a finalist in the Rise of the Rest pitch competition on May 9. We are happy for our company and the opportunity, but we are even more excited about the exposure it will provide for the city of Birmingham and our startup community.