Madison entrepreneurs win San Francisco tech prize
Excerpted from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
by Kathleen Gallagher
Two executives of a Madison start-up parlayed their company’s technology into a new use to win the grand prize and a total of $70,000 at a San Francisco technology contest this week.
Claus Moberg and Matt Lea teamed up with three other participants at the Disrupt SF Hackathon 2012 to best 146 other teams and win $5,000.
The technology at the heart of their entry, which they call livebolt, was a virtual rewards system where retailers use a small aluminum block to “stamp” people’s smartphones. The livebolt entry used the aluminum stamp to create a lock that can be attached to any door with Velcro and opened with a smartphone.
Livebolt also won a $65,000 award from Nokia for being the most innovative mobile product.
As for all the offers to move to California, Moberg says he’s got a standard answer.
“We have a great team in Madison, our company has been doing very well there, we have huge support from the Madison tech community and we’re very happy where we are,” he said.
