Betaspring Managing Director Melissa Withers is locked and loaded to judge the 2017 Hardware Cup National Finals this month in Pittsburgh. Hosted by AlphaLab Gear, the Hardware Cup—now in its second year—seeks to find and celebrate the nation's best early-stage hardware startups. Finalists from 7 cities across the U.S. and five countries will compete for the $50,000 Startbot Grand Prize!
Earlier this winter, Melissa was on-hand to judge the regional finals in Boston, where WrightGrid took home the grand prize to advance to the finals. WrightGrid has developed and deployed an independent power platform that enables a smart, scalable revenue model in areas of the world that have unreliable power. Powered by a single solar panel, the WrightGrid Model Z is a robust, cell phone charging + Wi-Fi station embedded with proprietary ChargeWright™ technology.
Melissa won't be playing favorites: WrightGrid will have stiff competition from these other finalists:
VaGenie- West Coast
Rubitection - Mid-Atlantic
WrightGrid - Northeast
PlayDate - Southeast
Iron Goat - East Coast
Rover Development - Midwest
EyeROV - India
QD Laser - Japan
Penta Medical - Canada
SuperSmart - Israel
To register to attend or for more info, check out the Hardware Cup website.