2013 NorthFront “Entrepreneur Excellence Awards” Banquet

Entrepreneurs from Northern Utah Earn Top Honors

– NorthFront Entrepreneur Excellence Awards Recognized Top Entrepreneurs for Growth, Potential, & Resourcefulness –

SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 17, 2013 – For three successful startup companies from Northern Utah, Christmas came early as they were awarded gifts of honor at the fifth annual “Entrepreneur Excellence Awards” Banquet on December 11th.

Organized by the NorthFront Entrepreneur Alliance (www.NorthFrontAlliance.org), the Entrepreneur Excellence Awards were started in 2009 to honor top performing startup businesses from Weber, Davis, and Morgan counties. Awards are given in three categories: Best Bootstrapped Business, Rapid Growth Business and Greatest Potential Business. An Entrepreneur Legacy Award is also given to an outstanding individual who has made a big impact on the entrepreneur ecosystem.  The 2013 winners were:

• Best Bootstrapped Business: Nerchur – Nerchur is an online toolset designed to help small businesses accelerate their sales and marketing efforts. During the sales process, it helps determine interest level and eliminates time wasted on the wrong types of customers. They have successfully bootstrapped the company through personal savings and credit cards to fund all initial development costs.
• Rapid Growth Business: Pluralsight – Pluralsight is an online training solution for software developers and IT administrators and one of Davis County’s fastest growing companies. It has become the ultimate one-stop shop for programmers, engineers and every other professional under the CTO and CIO umbrella. In just the past few years, their network has surged to 400,000 users, 330 instructors and 1,200 total courses alone.  They have also raised $27.5 million funding, acquired three competitors in multi-million dollar deals, grown from 8 employees in 2012 to the current number of 105 employees, and will soon be relocating their headquarters to Station Park in Farmington for more room.
• Greatest Potential Business: Symptom.ly – Symptom.ly is an online health platform consisting of a clinically validated, web-based dashboard and communication portal for primary care providers, researchers and patients to effectively track patient-entered health symptoms. Their first product is eAsthma Tracker, a patient-entered data system for tracking child asthma. A recent study showed their platform reduced Asthma related hospital re-admission rates down to 2.3% (from 40% nationally). In the coming year, they expect to close contracts with Medicaid Utah, Medicaid Idaho, University of Utah Health System, Arches Health Plan, and Intermountain Healthcare.

“We’re honored to win this award”, said Derek Bereit, CEO of Symptom.ly.  “We think we have a great product that offers a significant cost savings to the healthcare industry and it definitely has huge potential. We have some really big contracts in the work for 2014 and are excited for the growth that will happen next year. Receiving this award validates that we are on the right track to creating a large scalable business,” he added.

“Having a booming, thriving, tech company stay right here in Davis County deserves an award in and of itself,” said Alex Lawrence, WSU Vice Provost, regarding Pluralsight. “I believe this company will be valued at a billion dollars in the next few years.  It’s pretty exciting to have a company like that right here in our own backyard,” he added.

The 2013 Entrepreneur Legacy Award was given to Steve Cloward, Director of the NorthFront Business Resource Center. The award is given to someone who has greatly impacted the entrepreneur community and whose influence will be felt for many years. As director over the past 8 years, Steve has led the way in building an entrepreneur resource center in Kaysville, mentored hundreds of small businesses, developed entrepreneur training courses, and generated tremendous community support for entrepreneurial activity. Prior to that, Steve served as President and CEO of BIG O Tires.

“I really am overwhelmed and thrilled to receive this award”, said Steve. “You work your whole life hoping that somehow, in some way, you will make a difference in someone’s life and I hope I have. However, I am truly on the receiving end of so much that has happened.  I couldn’t have done it without the support of wonderful family members, friends, and co-workers,” he concluded.

Steve will be retiring at the end of this month and stepping down as director of the Resource Center.

For more information on this, as well as past and future NorthFront Entrepreneur Alliance events, visit www.NorthfrontAlliance.org.

About the NorthFront Entrepreneur Alliance

The NorthFront Entrepreneur Alliance was created in 2008 under the sponsorship of SEED Weber/Davis/Morgan & Grow Utah Ventures.  Its purpose is to bring entrepreneurs in Northern Utah together to learn, network, share ideas, find needed resources, and to recognize accomplishments among the group. The goal is to create an alliance that will foster and promote entrepreneurism in Northern Utah.  There are approximately 1600 members of the alliance. For more information, visit www.NorthfrontAlliance.org.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NFEntrepreneur; #nfea
Facebook: facebook.com/northfrontalliance

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PR Contacts:

Justin Bott
Grow Utah Ventures
& NorthFront Alliance
(801) 593-2269
info@growutahventures.com