2018 Startups To Watch

Founded 2016 City Lehi Employees 114  Industry Financial technology Website GetDivvy.com Founder Blake Murray, 34  The Company Provider of a free payment and expense management platform for any size of business. 

GREAT MINDS Innovation is paying off. This payment platform received its Series A and Series B funding just 11 weeks apart, with the Series B funding tripling its valuation to more than $150 million (a feat that caught the attention of Forbes.com). With Divvy, businesses can manage and monitor company spending from a phone or desktop. Its newest feature, Forecast, predicts monthly expenses to help avoid overspending.

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS  1. Divvy belongs in every business. 2. Make Divvy’s value a no-brainer. 3. Develop long-term strategic partnerships at scale.

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

GREAT BUSINESS MINDS … “Look at an incumbent framework as arbitrary. This enables you to look past constraints that your competition adheres to and allows you to build your business with a fresh set of eyes and true creativity.”

MIND YOUR BUSINESS … “Focus on your core mission maniacally.”

WEIGHING ON YOUR MIND … “Achieving our potential. I want no stone left unturned.”

PEACE OF MIND COMES FROM … “Having the best team. We love each other, laugh with each other, disagree with each other and trust each other. Our foundation is solid.”

Founded 2015 City Lehi Employees 25 Industry Blockchain, security, information technology and network infrastructure Website Mainframe.com Founder Mick Hagen, 34 The Company A platform for creating and deploying decentralized applications. 

GREAT MINDS Mainframe is a practice-the-preaching company. As a decentralized application platform, this tech company raised funds this year with a cryptocurrency token sale and boasts an experienced leadership team at the helm. (Founder Mick Hagen was behind Zinch, which was later acquired by Chegg.) 

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS 1. Successfully launch the platform so that developers can build decentralized applications that are censorship-resistant and surveillance-resistant. 2. Work with developers all over the world to create applications that give more freedom, privacy and security back to the hands of actual users. 3. “Be proud of the work we’re doing and have fun in the process.”

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

GREAT BUSINESS MINDS … “A mind that’s never satisfied.”

SPEAK YOUR MIND … “There is too much talking, not enough doing. Every week I get messages from entrepreneurs wanting to share big ideas with me. And often these same entrepreneurs will approach me again a few months later with a new idea. Too much talking about world-changing ideas and not enough time building, making and doing.”

Founded 2014 City Provo Employees 12 Industry Retail Website ThreadWallets.com FounderS Colby Bauer, 28; Mckenzie Bauer, 26 The Company A provider of cool and unique wallets and accessories.

GREAT MINDS Talk about a pocket full of sunshine. Thread Wallets is bringing “functionality and self expression to a product category saturated with bulky and boring.” After raising $35,000 on Kickstarter in 2014, the husband-wife duo launched their website and came out swinging. And the common thread? Growth. The company went from over $130,000 in sales in 2015 to $1.1 million in 2017 to projections of $4.5 million for 2018. (BusinessQ will see you on the Fastest-Growing flip side.)

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS 1. Have a solid team and culture where people have the freedom to create. 2. Become a household name for wallet products and accessories. 3. See Thread Wallets sold in Urban Outfitters. 

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

MIND YOUR BUSINESS … “Don’t compare your beginning to somebody else’s middle or end.”

PEACE OF MIND COMES FROM … “We’re religious people, so believing we have God as a business partner is very comforting.”

SPEAK YOUR MIND … “We love how willing people are to help and give of their time, advice and resources. We have connected with amazing individuals, and it’s helped our growth so much! We are indebted to local entrepreneurs.”

Founded 2014 City Provo Employees 15 Industry Fashion Website KortniJeane.com Founder Kortni Niccoli, 26 The Company A designer of mix n’ match swimwear for women, men and children. 

GREAT MINDS Kortni Jeane is floating to the top. Its immensely popular line of swimwear is followed by 233k friends on Instagram and has catapulted in sales with more than 6,500% growth since inception. 

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS 1. Be a force for positivity in the world by showcasing all types of women and bodies. 

2. Continue to grow our sales and social media accounts. 

3. “Run and grow Kortni Jeane until the day I die.” 

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

GREAT BUSINESS MINDS … “Stick to their guns. Too often we let our customers dictate what our company should be. While customer feedback is invaluable, don’t lose your vision. Train your customers to think like you do.”

MIND YOUR BUSINESS … “Get started! If entrepreneurs waited until our businesses were perfect, we’d never launch. To this day, we are constantly evaluating, changing and improving. Don’t be afraid to get your business out the door. The work never ends, so get started.”

SPEAK YOUR MIND … “I truly love the journey as much as I love the success. Can’t wait to see where this company takes me in my lifetime. And ever since I stepped away from customer service on a daily basis, my mental state has much improved.”

Founded 2017 City Lehi Employees 10 Industry Technology and self-storage Website Neighbor.com FounderS Joseph Woodbury, 25; Preston Alder, 26; Colton Gardner, 26 The Company A storage marketplace that connects people with things to store with people who have extra space. 

GREAT MINDS Won’t you be my Neighbor? This peer-to-peer storage company (“the Airbnb of storage”) has transformed its industry, raised $2.5 million in seed round funding, and is storing up goodwill among customers. Neighbor has been featured by Inc., Fortune, and BusinessInsider. 

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS 1. Reduce global poverty and boost the middle class by redistributing $38 billion in annual storage revenue to everyday people willing to share their space. 2. Become the largest local marketplace in the world. 3. Bring neighbors and communities closer together and promote local person-to-person relationships.

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

MIND YOUR BUSINESS … “Working side-by-side with coworkers in-person is motivating and productive.”

WEIGHING ON YOUR MIND … “Hiring — always.”

PEACE OF MIND COMES FROM … “Hearing customers talk about connecting with the neighbor they’ve lived next to for years but have never taken the time to get to know. Hearing our hosts talk about paying their mortgage or saving for a vacation with their Neighbor earnings each month. Hearing renters talk about how convenient it is to store items just a few doors down and save thousands of dollars a year.”

Founded 2010 City Provo Employees 20 Industry Language learning/3D/ artificial intelligence/virtual reality  Website FluentWorlds.com Founder Linda Bradford The Company Language learning experience via app, desktop or virtual reality. 

GREAT MINDS Look who’s talking! This virtual reality language teacher is fluent in success. Combining language learning with video game technology of artificial intelligence and virtual reality, FluentWorlds is the No. 1 language learning app on iTunes. It’s maintained a five-star rating with more than 1,000 ratings and has an 86 percent user retention rate. With partnerships with Jimmer Fredette and the LDS Church, the world is the company’s campus.

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS 1. Become the “Uber” of language learning. 2. Incorporate other languages like Mandarin and Spanish into the product line. 

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

GREAT BUSINESS MINDS … “Are open to inspiration, intuitively creative, natively intelligent and seasoned in the marketplace.”

MIND YOUR BUSINESS … “Make sure your business is based on integrity.”

SPEAK YOUR MIND … “What would I change in our community? I’d like greater respect given to female business professionals. What would I never change? The great hearts that underlie the people. Wouldn’t change that for the world.”

Founded 2016 City Provo Employees 35 Industry Software development/blockchain Website Pyrofex.net Founder Nash Foster, 42; Michael Stay, 44 The Company A blockchain and cryptocurrency software company building tools to improve distributed computing.

GREAT MINDS Two former Google employees start a software company in Utah Valley? Now that’s fire. As a self-proclaimed “nerdy office,” Pryrofex believes in systems both in management and in software engineering, cryptocurrency and information security. They’ve grown from three employees to 35 and recently partnered on a project with a branch of Vulcan Capital, the investment company owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

THE FUTURE IN MIND … GOALS 1. “We don’t have goals. We have systems, and we focus on making the system work better each time we do it.”

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

GREAT BUSINESS MINDS … “Are focused on problem-

solving and negotiation.”

MIND YOUR BUSINESS … “Having big dreams is great, but if you focus on what you’re doing every single day, you can make progress.”

WEIGHING ON YOUR MIND … “Payroll.”

PEACE OF MIND COMES FROM … “Revenue.”

SPEAK YOUR MIND … “I appreciate the honesty and straightforwardness of our business community.”

Founded 2017 City Lehi Employees 23 Industry Technology Website Strala.com Founder Mikel X. Chertudi, 42; Rob Clarke, 36 The Company Marketing data tracking SaaS platform to help leading brands create uniquely data-first experiences and insights.

GREAT MINDS The resumes of Strala co-founders Mikel Chertudi and Rob Clarke include time at Adobe and Ancestry (both UV50 legends!). The word strala is Swedish for a ray of light, and the company’s goal is to shed light on marketing strategies. Strala already has a vote of venture confidence. They’ve raised financing from Bay Area’s Lightspeed Venture Partners and Silicon Valley Bank, and Utah-based VCs including Pelion Venture Partners, Signal Peak Ventures, Peak Ventures and Cougar Capital. 

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS 1. Build a legendary company culture where everybody wants to work. 2. Create a technology company that revolutionizes data, insights and experiences. 3. Be Silicon Slopes’ next darling!

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

GREAT BUSINESS MINDS … “The ability to both think strategically and execute tactically at the same time.”

SPEAK YOUR MIND … “We’re a thriving, growing community, but our cities’ civil planning for roads, schools, parks, bikes, etc. is severely reactive versus proactive. We won’t be able to keep up with our success, and our quality of life will suffer for it. We need to do better.”

Founded 2015 City Pleasant Grove Employees 12 Industry Health Website WinkNaturals.com Founder Danny Villarreal, 35 The Company A natural sleep, oral, skin care and personal care products company for children and adults. 

GREAT MINDS You’ll want to do more than just wink at their success. The self-proclaimed “anti-MLM,” Wink Naturals has gathered almost 2,000 representatives in just six months, and they have more than 6,000 5-star reviews. Wink’s founder, Danny Villarreal, previously co-founded Zarbee’s, a line of natural products that was carried in more than 60,000 stores and retailers. 

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS 1. Impact and strengthen families/women. 2. Grow our seller/venture program from 2,000 to over one million women. 3. Be the next Utah unicorn as a consumer goods brand. 

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

GREAT BUSINESS MINDS … “Have resilience. Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur until they realize how brutal it can be.”

MIND YOUR BUSINESS … “It’s all about time, energy and focus.”

PEACE OF MIND COMES FROM … “Having a sense of purpose and a vision.”

MAKE UP YOUR MIND … “Collect as much information as you can, meditate, put it into perspective, decide and move forward.”

Founded 2018 City Provo Employees 14 Industry Talent development Website Soar.com Founder Paul Allen, 53 The Company The technology enabler of the global strengths movement and the premier Al-powered platform for human development.

GREAT MINDS Strengths Inc. — founded by Ancestry.com’s founder Paul Allen — provides the platform of 

Soar.com where coaches display their services and expertise. When coaches sign on, they create a profile and link to clients based on expertise and location. With Paul Allen behind this infant enterprise, everyone’s eyes are on its DNA.

THE FUTURE IN MIND GOALS 1. Help a billion people discover and develop their God-given talents. 2. Be Utah’s most valuable company. 3. Be the best place our employees have ever worked.

MIND YOUR BUSINESS

GREAT BUSINESS MINDS … “Are constantly learning.”

WEIGHING ON YOUR MIND … “How to lift all humanity with our tools, not just the well-educated and well-off who work for major corporations.”

PEACE OF MIND COMES FROM … “When I’m in flow state (which is often) and I feel I’m doing what I was born to do.”

SPEAK YOUR MIND … “Change: Domo’s billboard monopoly. 😉 Never change: everything else. We have one of the best entrepreneurial cultures in the world.”