Have you cast your vote for the Crowd Favorite Award from the list of finalists for the LaunchTN Pitch Competition at the 36|86 Entrepreneurship Festival yet? Two Knoxville-based startups, Nth Cycle and StoragePug, are eligible to win — so start voting today!

The Crowd Favorite Award provides competing startups a chance to win $10,000 to invest in their business. Live poll results will appear on LaunchTN’s website until Aug. 12. Voting will end Aug. 29 at 12p.m. CT, one hour before the pitch competition starts. The winner will be announced at the end of the competition. 

Learn more about these Knoxville-based startups below and don’t forget to cast your vote for the $10,000 Crowd Favorite Award: 

  • Nth Cycle: Megan O’Connor, the CEO and co-founder, developed an electrochemical recycling device to recover rare earth and specialty elements (i.e., cobalt) from end-of-life electronics waste streams for reuse in advanced manufacturing. 
  • StoragePug: Tommy Nguyen, the co-founder and COO, created his software company to help self-storage facilities raise their visibility and attract customers with marketing and web tools. The software connects customers to self storage through online rentals, bill pay and digital lease signing.

Nth Cycle and StoragePug competed in the Innov865 Startup Day pitch competition in 2018. Click here to register for Startup Day 2019, held at the Mill & Mine on September 24.