Franchesca Gonzales left the banking industry four years ago to start Fuel To Fit, a health-driven meal prep company that is now one of the longest-standing and fastest-growing meal prep companies in the Valley. Each meal is prepared using high-quality ingredients with macros and nutritional content in mind, and guests can customize their orders to be dairy-free; beef-, fish- … [More]
Pizza Oven on a Roll
Founded by Arin Finger earlier this year, in the very thick of COVID-19 closures, Dough Riders is a mobile wood-fired pizza company that “comes to you” to “deliver” fresh fired pizza, salads and desserts on demand. Using an 800-degree oven, Dough Riders provides a visual presentation with each order. Pizzas are served fresh in less than two minutes, and guests can enjoy … [More]
Mythion Games: Monthly Adventures in Interactive and Nostalgic Fiction
Mythion Games was founded last year as an independent game development company focused on the continued development and growth of the mobile, multi-player, interactive fiction game Mythion Adventures. “Our goal is to bring the genre of interactive fiction to the next generation of players, while stoking the nostalgia of those who have been fans since the beginning,” says Kyle … [More]
Marketing Agency Founded on Motherhood’s Rich Range of Skill Sets
E Squared Marketing is a boutique digital marketing agency founded and operated by a team of powerhouse women who bring a personal touch to everything they do. The “all women” approach was and remains a central principle for founder and owner Ashley Richards, who sees motherhood as providing the requisite job experience for employment and championed work-from-home long before … [More]
Ninja Focus Platform Aims Mindfulness Benefits to Kids
Founded in Spring 2019, Ninja Focus is a mindfulness SaaS platform designed for kids age 3–12 to improve sleep, enhance focus, regulate emotions and encourage positive behavior. Our mission is to have kids around the world be mindful and become more compassionate at an early age. We want to provide a tool for parents in helping their kids self-regulate emotions and drive … [More]
Online Dealty, Inc. Benefits Homebuyers, Sellers and Agents
Designed to benefit sellers, buyers, iBuyers and home builders as well as real estate agents, Dealty is a marketplace application disrupting and reshaping the real estate industry with a transparent open architecture platform posting homes for sale from all sources and providing all the tools and services needed to go from listed to closed. Founded in 2018, Dealty provides … [More]
ROOM8 Enables Co-Living Search while Social Distancing
Mere months after ROOM8 launched its app to optimize co-living through roommate matching and apartment search services, the emergence of COVID-19 gave it new purpose. Modifications added in April to the features of last October’s launch help users navigate the intimate process of vetting potential roommates and looking for apartments virtually from the comfort and safety of … [More]
Hook & Hunt Offers Top Brands at Lower Prices
Founding her company in February of this year, Mary Hampton was just in time for the COVID-19-induced general economic slowdown. She incorporated specific operations — some at the last minute — to fortify her online model. Hook & Hunt is a resale company of new, brand name products that are “the latest and greatest items people need, want and love at an unbelievably … [More]
LifeGuides Models Well-Being Business on Gig Economy
LifeGuides was created to fill what founder Mark Donohue recognized as a massive hole in corporate well-being programs by proactively providing peer-to-peer support for employees going through daily stresses and big life challenges, aiming to prevent those stresses turning into mental health issues and illness causing loss of productivity, presenteeism and absenteeism. “It … [More]
US Dental Triage Eases Stress on Healthcare System
In March of 2020, Michael Bonanno — CEO of Performance Partners and Virtual Support Solutions — realized that his business could either pivot or perish as a result of COVID-19. He knew dental clinics were struggling to stay open across the country due to practices being limited to emergencies only, and that there was an influx of people visiting the hospital with a dental … [More]
SmartGurlz Sparks Passion in Computer Sci
Appearing on ABC’s “Shark Tank” earlier this year, SmartGurlz founder Sharmi Albrechtsen beat out 40,000 other entrepreneurs and negotiated with guest “shark” Richard Branson before closing a deal with Daymond John on her line of groundbreaking toys that use an award-winning robotics platform to teach basic coding skills to girls as young as six years old. “Many girls’ toys … [More]
Driving Arizona’s Startup Community from Behind the Generosity Flywheel
Five years ago, StartupAZ Foundation was nothing more than a shared vision among a group of entrepreneurs and community leaders who believed our ecosystem could be so much more. We wanted to create something that would empower local entrepreneurs to grow, give back and positively impact the state — and simultaneously begin to shift Arizona’s economy away from the volatile real … [More]
Bunker Labs: Entrepreneurial Boost for Veterans
Bunker Labs is a national network of veteran entrepreneurs dedicated to helping new veteran, military spouse, and active duty military entrepreneurs start their own business. The nonprofit is committed to seeing that every entrepreneur in the veteran community has the network, tools and resources they need to start their own business. “Bunker Labs was started in 2014 by … [More]
LIV AZ Realty: Boutique Brokerage Raises Bar on Training
We are a boutique real estate brokerage, founded last September. We serve our clients by providing assistance in purchasing and selling residential real estate. This is a second career for both of us — our first careers were in sales and sales management — and we realized early on that the real estate school does not give new licensees any training or education on how to market … [More]
Canyon Ventures: Innovative Accelerator
GCU’s focus on benefitting its students and its community is evident in its recently launched business accelerator, Canyon Ventures. Member businesses must hire GCU students, a valuable pool of talent for the businesses that also benefits the students by giving them marketable experience as a foot in the door for future employment. Not only is space rent-free, but Canyon … [More]
From Research to Revenue
No research goes to market without time and money spent. Great ideas often die in a lab or workshop because the person behind them does not have the knowledge on how to bring the idea to market. While one may have the talent and skills to develop an idea, it’s crucial to have someone on the team who understands marketing, accounting, fundraising, et cetera, to bring the idea to … [More]
Startups in 2020 – How to Get an Idea Funded
Many of us think we have a “great idea,” but getting that idea to a point someone will write a check for is far more complex than many may think. To get funded, it’s important to look for three key elements: Is the idea scalable? Is the team behind it solid and capable to get it there? And is the market actually ready for it? The goal is to convince the potential funders that … [More]
Finding a Home In-Between
An unfilled niche in the real estate industry?! Explains Nick Calvi, “My wife and I were in between homes and in need of a comfortable furnished home for three to four months. We found the process to be very frustrating, calling and emailing owners and property managers, not getting any response. This created extra stress in an already very stressful time. We thought it should … [More]
