It was a lot of fun meeting some of the great startups around the country during the preliminary rounds of the National Hardware Cup, and last week the winner of the finals was announced.  To get to the final round of the startup pitch contest, each of the winners had to first win their regional competition at their local TechShop.  The winners from each region were:

Detroit – Vayu

Autonomous delivery aircraft aimed at delivering medication, vaccines and other lab samples to clinics and people without reliable infrastructure.

Washington DC – HeadsUP!

Interactive GPS that talks to you and guides you to your destination in a safe, hands free fashion.

Austin – Curb

The first whole home energy intelligence system, making your home safer and more energy efficient.

Phoenix – FITGuard

A mouth guard aiming to solve the problem of athletes returning to play after a high probability of head injury occurred.

San Francisco – FlameStower

Charges small electronic devices in any environment where you can build a fire or light a flame.

San Jose – Sereneti

Automated single serving cooking, all you need to do is supply the ingredients!

Pittsburgh – Alpha Stroke

Early detection of stroke in patients, allowing them to get to the hospital more quickly for treatment.

Although all of these companies did a great job, and made it tough on the judges, there could only be one winner, Curb Energy!  Curb (@EnergyCurb) is the first whole home energy intelligence system, making your home smarter, safer and more energy efficient.

Taking advantage of the circuit breaker box already in your house, Curb processes circuit-level electrical information to help optimize your household energy use.  Whether it is heating, cooling or letting you know that you left lights on in your house, you will quickly get a notification on your mobile device letting you know and allowing you to control your home.  In addition, if irregular activity begins to occur with one of your appliances, Curb will let you know that maintenance may be necessary.

Once again, I would like to congratulate all of the competitors of this year’s National Hardware Cup!   I look forward to seeing each of these companies continue to transform and grow over the coming years and am sure there will be a lot of great innovation coming from them.  Keep checking back to the Fusion 360 Design Differently blog as I am sure we will have some exciting updates to come from not only Curb but many of the other competitors as well!

James