Four of 10 startup companies that pitched their businesses in Birmingham this week are moving on to battle for a $50,000 prize in Nashville in June. But the real winner may already be Birmingham’s entrepreneur community.

Charlie Brock, CEO of Launch Tennessee, explains the 36|86 competition to those gathered in Birmingham. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)

The 36|86 Conference made its first of three stops in the Southeast at Birmingham’s Iron City on Wednesday. Launch Tennessee and its partners created the regional search for startup companies open to businesses in 12 Southeastern states and the District of Columbia. The conference takes its name from the latitude and longitude of Nashville.

“It’s an opportunity for the Southeast to come together and celebrate entrepreneurship, innovation and capital formation,” Charlie Brock, CEO of Launch Tennessee, said. “It’s all about how do we get more awareness and education and networking for the entrepreneurs. It’s our belief that we need more money flowing across state lines. We need to collaborate, work together. Then we need to bind together and shine a light on some of our top startups and show that to the coastal investors.”

Companies compete for funding in Birmingham stop of 36|86 from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

Bob Crutchfield, general partner with Harbert Venture Partners, a sponsor of the Birmingham conference, was on the panel of judges. He said for Birmingham to be one of the regional sponsors for 36|86 was significant.

“There are three important aspects of this event,” he said. “One is that the Birmingham technology and innovation scene is being recognized regionally as one of importance. So I think having a well-run organization like Charlie Brock’s 36|86 out of Tennessee come down here has been a real statement of validation for the work we’re doing. The second is I think we have great companies that are developing in technology and innovation in the Birmingham market. It’s a chance for us to be able to expose them to a broader region and broader investment opportunities. And then I think the third is that our community really needs to recognize that we are a very progressive technology and innovation community. I think it’s helpful for our own citizens to see what’s happening here. So we’re impressed that 36|86 selected Birmingham.”

BLOX LLC, being pitched by CEO Chris Giattina, is one of four finalists chosen at the Birmingham competition. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)

In Birmingham, 10 companies from Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia gave five-minute pitches to a team of judges in hopes they would be picked to move on to the finals in Nashville for the 36|86 Conference June 6-7. A similar competition will take place in Atlanta next week and then again in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., the following week.

The four companies chosen from the Birmingham competition are:

• BLOX is a Bessemer-based company and CEO Chris Giattina made its pitch. The company has already won other venture funding and investors have bought into its “Design Manufacture Construct” approach to modular construction that has found early success in the healthcare industry.
• The Ark Labs is based in Florence and Mack Cornwall, head of business development at the company, presented its plan. Ark Labs created The Ark, a smart monitoring device packed with a remote shutoff valve that is empowered by artificial intelligence software.
• Rapid RMS, a Chattanooga company pitched by Jason Luna, has built proprietary technology that allows an iPad-based point-of-sale system to control petroleum dispensers. The technology gives retailers tools that don’t require having an IT department to administer.
• Torch, another Chattanooga-based company pitched by CEO Shelley Prevost, has developed a Wi-Fi router that enables parents to bring safety, balance and visibility to children’s online activity.

Each of the Southern Series winners will receive a travel and lodging stipend as well as a free conference pass for the final Nashville competition in June.

Devon Laney, CEO of Innovation Depot, another sponsor of the Birmingham event, said regional competitions like this with pitches reminiscent of the television show “Shark Tank” are beneficial to companies and are becoming more frequent.

“Practice makes perfect,” he said. “The more times you have to get up in front of people and explain your business succinctly and the reasons for supporting your business succinctly, it makes you better.”

Ahmed Dharani, co-founder of Doc24Seven, makes his pitch in Birmingham. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)

For companies like those at Innovation Depot, Laney said the exposure is important.

“It’s really important for us to showcase our local technology companies to a broader audience, give them a better platform,” he said. “Typically, people look at East Coast-West Coast and ignore everything else in between. By collaborating with our regional partners in the Southeast, it’s able to give us a way to showcase all of the exciting companies that we have – all of the startup activity in our ecosystem – to a much larger, broader audience as well.”

Birmingham’s emerging technical industries benefit from networking in a broader region, Harbert’s Crutchfield said.

The judges panel hears pitches at the Birmingham stop of 36|86 Conference. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)

“There are benefits to having a regional focus because, frankly, we’re still developing an ecosystem and infrastructure that allows for enough entrepreneurs, enough talented support staff to be able to create entrepreneurial activities that are consistent and sustainable,” he said. “I still think we’re a little early in that development, but we’re getting there rapidly.”

The other presenters in Birmingham were:

• Credda out of South Carolina offers a new approach to financing consumer goods.
• Doc24Seven is a Birmingham-based company offering a cloud-based healthcare service portal that is secure, affordable and easily accessible.
• Nashville-based Everly creates natural drink mixes to help people drink more water. They are sugar-free, have zero calories and, for every box purchased, Everly provides lifesaving rehydration salts to treat children sick with waterborne disease.
• MechOptix Inc. in Madison created AutoBrakeLight.com and CycleBrakeLight.com for its first product, the Stoptix automatic brake lamp.
• Pass It Down out of Chattanooga aims to help people capture their family stories using their phone, tablet or computer to ask and answer questions provided by oral historians. Stories can be captured in video, audio, text and photos and then shared publicly, with friends and family, or kept privately like a journal.
• Suture Health Inc. is a startup medical technology company at Birmingham’s Innovation Depot with more than 200 clients in more than 30 states that sells software as a service to the healthcare provider market.