COVID-19 relief for startups
Doing our part.
In 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, Aurora Consulting announced the RISE Award to help small businesses and inventors through these challenging times. Consistent with our mission to support emerging growth companies, we feel that weathering this crisis should not come at the loss of hard-fought R&D efforts. To that end, we’re proud to announce that we’re bringing the RISE Award back for 2021, offering a free provisional U.S. patent application or $5,000 towards a non-provisional U.S. patent application to a selected applicant. We hope that this award will continue to help provide stability and encouragement to diligent innovators.
How can the award help me? |
For the selected applicant, we will work closely with you and your team of inventors to provide one of the following: A free provisional U.S. patent application or $5,000 towards a non-provisional U.S. patent application
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Is my business eligible? |
This award is eligible to any SMB or inventor that has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The only requirement is that you must have an impactful innovation that you want to share with the world. We welcome applicants from all subject matter areas and zip codes. We deeply appreciate that innovation knows no zip code boundaries.
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What criteria are used for evaluation? |
Eligible applications will be reviewed by an internal panel based on equal weighting of the following criteria: Technology Maturity, Market Relevance, Economic Impact, Societal Impact, and Need.
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How do I apply? |
To get started, just click the Apply button below and you will be directed to a Google form that will help collect your application information. The application is short and should take less than 30 minutes to complete. Rest assured, all information is held in the strictest of confidence.
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What can I expect after applying? |
The application process will be open until 11:59 PM ET on April 5th, 2021. We will be diligently reviewing applications over the coming weeks and hope to make an announcement in mid April. All applicants will be contacted once we make our final decision. The winner must use the award within 60 days of the announcement.
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Stay healthy. Stay strong!
2020 Winners
Selection process
An overwhelming response, far beyond expectation, made for an incredibly difficult selection process. Your stories broke our hearts and your perseverance inspired us – so much so, that we decided that the original plan for a single award was far too constraining under the circumstances. Given the high volume of quality submissions and our desire to help as many as possible during these trying times, we expanded the offering beyond the single $5,000 award to include the addition of $2,500 awards to three other exceptional finalists. Using a weighted matrix, our panel scored applications based on the following criteria:
- Potential impact of the innovation
- Innovator/team potential to see through to commercial success
- Time and market relevance
- Need
- Application quality
We can't say it enough, but the recipients are a truly gifted collection of entrepreneurs who will surely do great things. We couldn’t be more thrilled about the potential to be a part of their journey and endurance during this critical time.
The 2020 awards went to...
We're so very pleased to announce that the first place, full $5,000 award goes to CAPNOS. Their noble mission is to "help people breathe better with a safe alternative to vaping to reduce lung illnesses and save lives." Founder and former vape user, Brendan Wang, noticed that he wasn’t addicted to the nicotine, but rather the habit of vaping itself. After more of his friends tried quitting, he thought there had to be a way to simulate the vaping experience without the harmful side effects. Their device, the CAPNOS Zero, effectively satiates the desires that come with stress, boredom, and party situations, helping its users take the edge off and feel relaxed. Their zero smoke, zero nicotine approach ensures nothing is going into your lungs except the air around you.
Our thought bubble. The timing and necessity of this innovation couldn’t be more perfect. Prior to COVID, the health hazards from vaping were becoming an epidemic of their own, especially amongst our vulnerable youth population. In a post-pandemic world, a focus on lung health will be of vital importance to all. The CAPNOS mission is timely and essential.
Our thought bubble. The timing and necessity of this innovation couldn’t be more perfect. Prior to COVID, the health hazards from vaping were becoming an epidemic of their own, especially amongst our vulnerable youth population. In a post-pandemic world, a focus on lung health will be of vital importance to all. The CAPNOS mission is timely and essential.
We’re excited to share that we’ve selected PedalCell as our first runner-up, to receive a $2,500 award. PedalCell promotes bicycle adoption by powering technology that keeps riders safe and connected. Their goal is to forever eliminate dead batteries while biking. Batteries used by lights, GPS, phones, power banks, and other devices have limits for cyclists. They need charging, are bulky and heavy, and loose capacity outdoors. As an example, bike lights become hazards when they run out of power – 21% of cyclist fatalities occur at night in cities. PedalCell's CadenceX converts a rider’s motion into charging currents that power lights, smartphones, GPS, and other USB devices. It installs in minutes and is compatible with nearly all bicycles.
Our thought bubble. We firmly believe that healthy lifestyle-supporting innovations will be even more essential as we move forward into the post-COVID world. PedalCell is a winning combination of a great idea with an incredibly talented team to see it through execution and commercial success.
Our thought bubble. We firmly believe that healthy lifestyle-supporting innovations will be even more essential as we move forward into the post-COVID world. PedalCell is a winning combination of a great idea with an incredibly talented team to see it through execution and commercial success.
We are delighted to report that we've selected realLINGUA as our second runner-up, also receiving a $2,500 award. They're on a mission to unite the world through language-learning and make it accessible to all, by taking a fresh approach to learning languages that doesn't involve endless memorization, boring grammar skills, or nonsense phrases. The goal is getting to the level of a native-speaker while naturally learning the language actually used in the real world. Their approach combines the use of the linguistic concept called Comprehensible Input with Curated Immersion™ – giving you the right materials at the right time, that are challenging enough to make you struggle, but easy enough to follow along with the gist of the conversation. They have some very exciting new technology coming that we can't wait to share more about in the future.
Our thought bubble. Anyone who's ever taken a foreign language class has felt these pains when trying to put the education into practice. We firmly believe that any technology that enables remote learning and makes language learning more accessible and inclusive will be a much welcomed new normal.
Our thought bubble. Anyone who's ever taken a foreign language class has felt these pains when trying to put the education into practice. We firmly believe that any technology that enables remote learning and makes language learning more accessible and inclusive will be a much welcomed new normal.
Kaiser Precision Software, LLC
Our final exceptional runner-up is Dan Kaiser of Kaiser Precision Software, LLC. Dan is very early stage, so we're limited in how we can describe the innovation, but suffice it to say that it's an impactful invention that could improve safety for a huge number of consumers and professionals.
Our thought bubble. We think Dan has an innovation that could help many folks who are near and dear to our hearts, prevent what should be unnecessary injury.
Our thought bubble. We think Dan has an innovation that could help many folks who are near and dear to our hearts, prevent what should be unnecessary injury.
Going forward
We certainly hope we'll be able to put COVID and its path of destruction in the rearview soon. That said, we've decided that the RISE award will be here to stay. We love helping entrepreneurs. It's what gets us out of bed in the morning. Getting to help even more in an epically difficult time has proved to be exceptionally rewarding for us and we're certain it will prove to be such for the recipients. Please stay tuned for updates on these great companies.