Red Rocket gets introduced to hundreds of startups each year, in the normal course of doing business, or via our involvement with various startup groups or events. We wanted to honor the best of these startups that we met in 2017, in Red Rocket's 6th Annual "Best Startups of the Year". This list is not intended to be an all-encompassing best startups list, as there are many additional great startups that we are not personally exposed to each year. And, this list is not intended to be only for businesses that launched in 2017, it is open to startups of any age, that they or their advisors had some personal interaction with us in the last 12 months. The business simply needed to have a good idea, good team or good traction, that caught our attention. Congrats to you all!!
THE BEST STARTUPS OF 2017 (in alphabetical order):
Adzerk (CEO, James Avery) - B2B private ad servers
Archive Social (CEO, Anil Chawla) - B2B social media monitoring for legal compliance
Canopy (CEO, Hunt Davis) - B2C on-demand lawn care services
Cloud Factory (CEO, Mark Sears) - B2B cloud-based human workflow services
Feelgoodz (CEO, Mark Saad) - B2C comfortable flip flops & footwear
Filter Easy (CEO, Thad Tarkington) - B2C & B2B air filter replacement subscription service
Freight Farms (CEO, Brad McNamara) - B2B mobile farming containers & apps
Genetic Direction (CEO, Edwin Mayfield) - B2C diagnostic health testing based on your DNA
Its By U (CEO, Caroline Strzalka) - B2B DIY flower arranging subscriptions
Leesa (CEO, David Wolfe) - B2C mattress ecommerce
MATI Energy (CEO, Tatiana Birgisson) - B2B healthy energy drink
Open Angler (CEO, Alicia Aloe) - B2C fishing charter reservation platform
Option It (CEO, Rich Gilsdorf) - B2C sports event ticket options market
Pearachute (CEO, Desiree Vargas Wrigley) - B2B reservation platform for kids activities
Pendo (CEO, Todd Olson) - B2B product user experience analytics platform
Pet Wellbeing (CEO, Darcy Foster) - B2C natural supplements for pets
Phononic (CEO, Tony Atti) - B2B next-generation semiconductors for refrigeration
PocketChefs (CEO, Jason Brown) - B2C on-demand chefs to your home
Precision Hawk (CEO, Michael Chasen) - B2B corporate drone fleet management
Ravean (CEO, Bryce Fisher) - B2C heated jackets and gloves
Remedy (CEO, Jeremy Gabrysch) - B2C on-demand doctors to your home
Seal Innovation (CEO, Graham Snyder) - B2C IoT necklace for safe swimming
ShiftWizard (CEO, Joe Velk) - B2B scheduling platform for nurses
Spark451 (CFO, Ron Tadross) - B2B admissions marketing & management platform for universities
Spiffy (CEO, Scot Wingo) - B2C & B2B on-demand car washing service
Stealz (CEO, Jim Zidar) - B2B turning customers into brand ambassadors
Sunscreenr (CEO, David Cohen) - B2C sunblock protection visualizer
TransLoc (CEO, Doug Kaufman) - B2G transit data for municipal transportation agencies
Validic (CEO, Drew Schiller) - B2B digital health IoT platform
Volata Cycles (CEO, Marco Salvioli) - B2C smart bicycles
And, don't forget to check out the 2012 winners, 2013 winners, 2014 winners, 2015 winners and 2016 winners, many of whom continue to be doing great things.
Congratulations to you all!! Keep up the good work.
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