Utah Startup Incubator to Mentor 10 New Companies

BoomStartup, the incubator for new businesses located in Utah, has announced ten companies it will mentor in 2011. The new companies are selected to participate in a three-month summer program. BoomStartup focuses on tech startups involved in web, mobile, and software markets.

The mentoring program at BoomStartup is designed to provide new companies with access to potential investors by helping them improve the appeal of their operations. BoomStartup invests about $15,000 in each company participating in its program. The 2011 group of companies is the second class for the summer program following a 2010 inaugural class for BoomStartup.

BoomStartup is a member of the TechStars Network. The BoomStartup program is molded on the incubator system created by TechStars in Bolder, Colorado. However, the BoomStartup method matches a single mentoring investor with each new company for the entire program.

BoomStartup co-managing general partner, Robb Kuntz, said that narrowing the 2011 class to only ten companies was difficult due to the number of applicants for the program. Here are the selected startup companies and their new business ideas:

1. ChampionVillage, which provides an online gaming community for children that includes fitness and security features.

2. CircleFive, which is a social media platform permitting residential service companies to check in at the homes of customers as well as encourage customer testimonials and referrals.

3. Explorer.io, which is an online utility allowing people to search and share locations for hiking, camping, and other outdoor activities.

4. FaceTags, which provides facial mapping and recognition software that links an image among online content and mobile devices.

5.GolfComplete, which offers an online marketplace to help connect golf courses with users looking for discounts and other benefits.

6. OER Glue, which provides an avenue to locate open-license content available for teaching purposes.

7. Jumbas, which provides a single online source for the top daily shopping deals in various cities.

8. PromoKube, which is an application allowing users to load coupons onto their smart phones or mobile devices for point of sale redemption.

9. Proz, which provides web-based access to business management applications, an online referral center to professional business services, and web community pages.

10. VuTherapy, which offers an online marketplace for introducing therapists to prospective patients and allows therapists to access to an online patient management application.