Three Local Businesses Compete in the Trailblazer Challenge

(KNSI) — Three businesses from central Minnesota are nominated for the West Central Trailblazer Challenge, organized in part by the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation.

The three local companies are Hummingbird Golf in Collegeville, Impacks, and Piivately, both in St. Cloud.

Hummingbird Golf is a luxury golf brand that created a 6-in-1 golf multi-tool. It includes a ball alignment stencil, sharp groove cleaner, magnet, bottle opener, ball-mark repair tool, and club rest. The tool retails for $19 and “bridges the gap between $6 plastic tools and $70 Swiss Army Knife tools, not all of which have Hummingbird’s features.”

Impacks launched in 2020 to help students and teachers start the school year with the tools they need with a prepackaged school supply kit. The parents order the kits to be delivered to their child’s school. Impacks is now developing a subscription to act as a piggy bank for the classroom to collect money from parents that accumulate in an account to be accessed by the teacher through an app to buy needed supplies throughout the year.

Piivately is a cyber security company built for mid-sized businesses to help keep customer information safe. Piivately has an encrypted database to connect to a company’s existing infrastructure and protect customer data.

The challenge is a new competition open to all residents in west-central Minnesota with plans for a new company or business that has been incorporated for less than a year. The five finalists will make a pitch to the judges on April 13th, and the one with the best business idea will win $5,000 to develop their companies.

The West Central Trailblazer Challenge was also organized by Greater Fergus Falls, the Greater Fargo/Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, and St. Cloud’s ILT Studios as part of their combined efforts “to build a stronger entrepreneur ecosystem in the region.”

“The West Central Trailblazer Challenge was created to equip entrepreneurs and innovators to disrupt the status quo and create meaningful change while creating more opportunities to address the biggest challenges across our communities,” said Nick Tietz, Founder, and CEO of ILT Studios. “The five finalists are great examples of people with excellent ideas for blazing a new trail.”

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