Five companies joined the Spring 2022 RIoT* Foundations Program – a free six-week course that supports business owners and entrepreneurs.

 

The participants in the program met at the Virginia Smart Community Testbed in Stafford, VA to discuss the below topics as well as strategies for navigating a business in a post-COVID economy.

  • Core Business Truths & Best Practices: What are all the ingredients you need to operate a successful business? What are the habits you must build as a business owner to establish and grow your business?

 

  • Validation: How do you continually engage with your customers (or potential customers) and understand if you’re solving a real problem with the right solution?

 

  • Operations 101: How do you manage your finances, your team, and your customer relationships?

 

Learn about the companies that participated below:

 

Company Name: Precision Digital Forensics

What is a one sentence summary of your company? Precision Digital Forensics is an innovative company that specializes in addressing the challenges with collecting, preserving, processing, and analyzing digital evidence and electronic data.

 

What inspired you to start this company? To help organizations manage their digital evidence and ediscovery life’s cycle for criminal, civil administrative, regulatory, investigations and litigation environments.

What did you gain from participating in RIoT’s Foundation Program? I enhanced my network and leveraged the RIoT ecosystem and innovation partners.

 

Company Name: RIVERE

What is a one sentence summary of your company? RIVERE is an Ecological Center that supports a community of research, education, technology and ecoculture at one location.

 

What inspired you to start this company? Inspired by our founder, Buck Cox, the RIVERE Ecological Center’s goal is to support and promote partners working to improve water quality on the Rappahannock River. 

 

What did you gain from participating in RIoT’s Foundation Program? RIVERE gained additional stakeholders and partners in the community, while working to establish an ecological center that benefits the region. 

 

Company Name: Dyelation

What is a one sentence summary of your company? Dyelation is a lifestyle brand that offers sustainably sourced interactive apparel.

 

What inspired you to start this company? Dyelation began from the desire to prototype and create wearable artwork.

 

What did you gain from participating in RIoT’s Foundation Program? I gained a clear brand direction for Dyelation and a financial plan to sustain and continue to grow Dyelation’s apparel offerings.

 

Company Name: Livengood Systems

What is a one sentence summary of your company? LS uses the power of AI and computer vision to always monitor your hydroponics greenhouse.

 

What inspired you to start this company? ECE Senior Design at NC State! What was originally a super simple controller for hydroponic nutrients gradually morphed and matured into a one-of-a-kind IoT control system using wireless cameras and sensors to capture greenhouse data. The goal of the project was to develop a system that could take the time and babysitting out of hydroponics, a pain point our sponsor knew all too well, by using AI and computer vision to continually monitor plant health and growing conditions to optimize the controller setpoints.

 

What did you gain from participating in RIoT’s Foundation Program? By participating in the Foundation program, I learned to apply entrepreneurial principles and best practices to validate and refine the problem/solution fit for the idea we developed.

 

Company Name: The Grow Monster

What is a one sentence summary of your company? At The Grow Monster, our mission includes documenting our suburban gardening experience, helping you with your suburban gardening experience, and getting kids involved in the garden.

 

What inspired you to start this company? Joe and Therese have always enjoyed gardening together. He shared his love for gardening with her when they began growing various plants on their apartment balconies prior to moving into their first home. Eventually, Joe and Therese found they wanted to share everything they were learning while gardening with others. In May 2021, they started TheGrowMonster.com to bring their love of gardening to others.

 

What did you gain from participating in RIoT’s Foundation Program? We learned how to set our company up to succeed. We want to share our gardening knowledge with others answering the questions they want to know. It is important to create sustainable revenue streams so we can continue to help others in their suburban gardening pursuits.

 

Interested in participating in the next RIoT Foundations Program?  The program runs July 11th – August 8th at the Virginia Smart Community Testbed in Stafford, VA.  Learn more and apply here: https://www.meetup.com/RIoT-Virginia/events/284948526/

 

RIoT is a 501c3 economic development organization working in the technology space to help entrepreneurs and business owners grow their businesses. The RIoT Business Foundations program was funded in part by GO Virginia, an initiative administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) that strengthens and diversifies Virginia’s economy and fosters the creation of higher wage jobs in strategic industries. Partners include GO Virginia Region 6 Council, Stafford County EDA, and King George County EDA.