Alli Truttmann, founder and CEO of Wicked Technologies, has won first place in the 2023 finals of the 5 Across start-up business pitch contest. The 14th annual event was staged by Lexington’s Awesome Inc., which helps create and grow high-tech start-up businesses.
Alli Truttmann, founder and CEO of Wicked Technologies, won the 5 Across pitch competition with a technology-based bed pad that senses excess moisture.
Truttmann’s presentation was made before a panel of local judges and a near-capacity audience at the Kentucky Theatre. 5 Across derives its name from its pitch contest format: Five contestants describe and promote their start-up company to a panel of judges for five minutes, using no more than five PowerPoint slides for a prize of $5,000 cash — plus another $50,000 in a “safe note,” which is a legally binding promise to allow an investor to buy a specified number of shares at an agreed-upon price in the future. The 5 Across event is akin to a local version of the TV show “Shark Tank.”
Showing the audience a picture of her late grandmother and telling the story of her illness, incapacitation, and the accompanying bedsores, Truttmann explained her company’s mission to develop a washable and sensorized Wicked-Smart Pad for the eldercare market. The pad detects excess moisture in the bed and helps keep a patient cool and dry while managing incontinence.
“One in 10 people who are bedridden will develop bedsores,” Truttmann told the audience. “Bedsores can begin to form in as little as five minutes after excess moisture appears in an ordinary pad or bedding and can cost a healthcare system up to $100,000 to treat. Most insurance companies will not cover this cost.” Wicked Technologies is testing its patented technology on beds in various healthcare facilities around the country.
After huddling following the presentations, the judges felt Truttmann’s presentation was the best, with one saying the decision was unanimous. Contest judge Nate Morris, founder and former CEO of Lexington tech giant Rubicon Technologies, was quite impressed with Truttmann’s presentation.
“You had that experience with your grandmother and now have experience with this category,” Morris said. “We know how much you have been grinding, and the grit you’ve shown, and all the ups and downs you have had. We believe you have the DNA to make this happen in a big way.”
“I am really grateful for the support I have gotten,” Truttmann said. “My work comes from a place of love and concern. And as a granddaughter, I was able to find a solution to a problem. I encourage all of you to look into your hearts and into your everyday lives and see what will make your lives or the lives of others better.”
In an online presentation for the Wicked-Smart Pad, Truttmann says the population is aging and that eldercare is getting harder to manage. “This is exactly the place for technology to step in,” she says. A patented detection and mitigation system is in place to send immediate alerts of a moisture event.
Here is how it works: When a spillage occurs, the first layer of the Wicked-Smart Pad wicks the moisture away from a patient’s skin. The liquid then travels by way of a thread into a sensor that detects the moisture. A caregiver can remotely receive detailed information such as bed location, patient name, and bedding condition, all over WiFi. Multiple pads can be monitored at once, and historical data can be retrieved. An anti-microbial third layer in the pad absorbs the moisture, keeping the bedridden person dry.
The second-place winner in the tech start-up competition was Dr. Stevens Bonhomme and his company, Feedcoyote, which helps freelancers connect, network, collaborate, and manage projects globally. The three runners-up included Jennifer Mason and her all-in-one platform called Titlewise, which streamlines traditional real estate title research; Waleed Bahouth of Kyndly, which strives to make health insurance access and sign-ups easier for everyone; and Aram Street, who pitched his start-up called CleanSpace, which uses intuitive software applications for members of the cleaning industry, which is often plagued with high turnover and low morale.
Winning the contest is significant for a small start-up but what all entrepreneurs learn along the way, and what they teach others is more lasting. “Some of the best value that you can get as an entrepreneur on a stage like this is the connections, mentorship, and the investor opportunities after the event,” said Brian Raney, founder, and CEO of Awesome Inc. “All of the contestants will make connections that could lead to future investment of perhaps millions of dollars.”
Raney has a favorite success story about these 5 Across finals, and it goes back to the very first finals event in 2010. Tony Schmidt had created a company called APOonline which helps national fraternities consolidate their active and alumni membership information, collect dues and donations, and manage internal communication on a single platform.
Schmidt left Lexington for Seattle where he went to work for Microsoft. “A super-smart, brilliant kid. UK Magna Cum Laude,” said Raney. “He kept APOonline growing over the years and just a couple of years ago re-located to Lexington because his company had grown enough for him to quit his job at Microsoft. It is now his full-time gig. That company is what he pitched at 5 Across 13 years ago and he still likes being part of the entrepreneurial system here.”