TroopID wins the Reboot America Startup Pitch Competition

Evan Burfield Nov 16, 2012 Tweet

Last Friday, TroopID won the Grand Prize in the Reboot America Startup Pitch Competition. The company’s groundbreaking technology allows service members, veterans, and their families to verify their military credentials digitally to military-friendly brands and government agencies in order to claim discounts and benefits.

Blake Hall, CEO of TroopID, delivered the pitch in front of an audience of founders, corporate executives, and national policymakers, who had watched over 20 startups compete for recognition as the most impactful startup solving a major national challenge. As the Grand Prize winner, TroopID also won $5,000 from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and a free exhibition booth within Eureka Park at the International CES in Las Vegas in January. The judges for the final included Michael Petricone, the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for the CEA; Dan Kasun, the Senior Director for Public Sector Evangelism for Microsoft; Mark Adams, the Director of Small Business Marketing for Verizon; and Jens Francis, Founder of the Faultline Group.

TroopID won the Government track to make the finals along with Ruck.us, the winner of the Democracy track, and WeRX, the winner of the National Challenges track. Ruck.us is a political social network that connects you with politically like-minded people based on your unique positions and interests so that you can share ideas and take real action on the issues you care about most. WeRX is an innovative web and mobile platform that enables users to share and compare the most up-to-date information regarding prescription drug costs within their local pharmacies.

The judges for the Democracy track were Peter Cherukuri from Huffington Post, Penny Lee from Venn Strategies, and Ashish Jaiman from Microsoft. The competing startups in media, citizen advocacy, and politics included:

The judges for the National Challenges track were Mark Drapeau from Microsoft, Brandon Pollack from Bryan Cave, and Sean McElrath from Hallway. The competing startups in education, health, and energy included:

The judges for the Government track included Rusty Talbot from Synteractive, Lewis Shepard from Microsoft, and Alex Howard from O’Reilly Media. The competing startups in government, national security, and cyber security included:

Reboot America is a national movement focusing America’s leading corporations and emerging startups on innovative solutions to our country’s greatest challenges. Reboot America was created by Startup DC in partnership with the Startup America Partnership and The NYSE Big StartUp, and sponsored by Microsoft and Verizon.