The UpDown NightLife app lets clubs and bars improve customer satisfaction rates with bottle service. With just a few clicks of a button, a customer can reserve a table, pick mixers and put together a guest list. With help from Digital Sandbox KC, UpDown NightLife will complete app development and launch the project.

Bottle service is not always a seamless process. It can be stressful, from not knowing who to call or when to call to trying to create reservations, pick mixers, and get a guest list together. Some nights, it can be hard just getting into a hot joint.

Whether a customer comes to “Turn Up” the night or are out to “Get Down”, the UpDown Nightlife app makes the journey a lot easier. The UpDown NightLife app is developed to make the night a success; with just one click a customer can reserve a table, pick mixers, and put together a guest list.

The app allows customers to follow all the clubs of their choice. When a user clicks into the app, that person’s timeline pops up. The customer can scroll to look at these clubs to check out specials.

 “With this new funding, we will launch and become a true social media platform for the nightlife,” said Joshua Lewis, CEO.

TeraCrunch is helping customers all over the world unlock the full potential of data. Top fortune 100 companies have selected TeraCrunch solutions to make important and mission-critical business decisions by applying data insights to inform and influence products, branding, customer engagement and experiences.  

“Our mission is to support enterprises in key and novel decision making opportunities via actionable intelligence and insights over “big data,” says Tapan Bhatt, founder and CEO.  “We do this using our Unified Big Data Analytics platform (UBA) to aggregate, synthesize, analyze and distribute large volumes of data (“Big Data”) and content that provide actionable intelligence and meaningful insights to enterprises. Through these insights, CMO’s can make advanced marketing decisions and CIO’s accelerate their efforts to manage challenges and opportunities across various functions.”

From healthcare to marketing to optimizing operational processes TeraCrunch’s system helps identify early indicators, trends, gaps and helps solve business problems. 

While athletes are battling it out on a football, soccer or other athletic field, head injuries are stealing the headlines. Effective diagnosis of concussions is limited to observing symptoms typical of head trauma. But now, pHLOGISTIX has a blood test for concussions in development for point-of-injury diagnosis.

Repetitive concussions can lead to dementia and other neurological conditions if untreated.  Given the remarkable explosion in youth participation in contact sports, concussive rates in girls are exceeding those of boys.  

“Sandbox money will allow us to integrate the analyte and clinimetric data in order to have proof-of-concept,” says Barry Festoff, M.D., founder and CEO of pHLOGISTIX. “This can significantly change the way concussion and mild traumatic brain injury are diagnosed and treated. Current methods are all subjective.”

“As a father with a son playing football, anything we can do to better recognize and diagnose concussions is an important advancement,” says Shackelford, noting that no other solution like this exists. “pHLOGISTIX’s platform includes a digital component and software allowing for point-of-injury diagnostics that are objective.” 

If you watch football games on TV, you have likely noticed the technology deployed to make the broadcast more viewer-friendly. But why isn’t that available for in-stadium viewing? L​azser Down has developed a solution that could improve the in-stadium experience for fans.  

Every football play begins with the official spotting the ball with a down marker and chain. We see the down and then guess at the exact distance. TV technology has addressed this through a number of innovations available to the home viewer while the in-stadium method is a technological dinosaur, virtually unchanged in more than 100 years. 

Enter former football coach, Michael Foster, who invented a solution.

“Lazser Down provides real-time down and distance that is digitally displayed on the field and synchronized with the stadium scoreboard,” says J. Michael Foster, CEO. Measurements are read out by the yard, foot and, when necessary, by the inch. Foster says, “It is frustrating because the determination of distance can be subjective. Placements can be different based on angle or a misread of the ball.”

The patent approved Lazser Down technology is synchronized with the stadium scoreboard through electronic, laser, and RF (radio frequency) technology. 

The value of this advanced in-stadium system technology will improve strategy of coaches and players while enhancing the on-field administration by officials.  

“There is a lot of interest in integrating technology into the ‘in-stadium’ experience,” says Jeff Shackelford, executive director, Digital Sandbox KC. “And Lazser Down’s unique real-time technology improves the in-stadium experience.” 

ClaimJockey files and manages long term care insurance claims for families and care providers, helping them access funds for needed care. ClaimJockey has a 90% success rate in having claims accepted after the first filing.

Here’s how it works:

1. The consumer, their family member or referral partner contacts ClaimJockey via a submission through the ClaimJockey website. The lead is electronically fed into ClaimJockey’s HIPAA compliant database system.

2. ClaimJockey’s experienced long term care insurance professionals meet with families to assess their needs and claim viability at no charge.

3. Highly trained case management staff then review the case, gather the required medical records, prepare and file the initial claims in the manor required by the various insurance companies.

4. After the initial filing and payment, additional claims must be filed on a monthly basis which can continue for years. The duration of ClaimJockey’s involvement ranges from three months to multiple years.

A highly experienced management team leads this effort, beginning with founder and president Wendy Rinehart. Rinehart is a nationally recognized long term care industry specialist and co-founder of the Long Term Care Guild, an industry association. She is joined by CEO David Rinehart, divisional vice president at LTC Financial Partners, General Electric and John Hancock; CFO Michael Briggs, president of INFINEDI, Inc., a top  medical claims processor; and Bob Miller, senior vice president of business development and sales, formerly with Amex Life, Genworth, CUNA and LTC Financial Partners.

With the help of Digital Sandbox KC, ClaimJockey will build a new website that can be linked to their HIPAA-compliant database.

Aware3 is reinventing brick-and-mortar retail districts through an omni-channel digital experience.  Their platform, AMP, is a cloud-based service that can build and manage an end-to-end digital ecosystem, helping retail districts achieve growth through their digital touch points.  It serves as the “command center” for their digital presence, allowing them to provide a consistent and real-time user experience anytime, anywhere, and from any device.

A family health crisis led to the creation of Heart To Heart Network, a company focused on improving the effectiveness of monitoring patients. As one of the first six companies ready for funding in Digital Sandbox KC, founder Abhi Ray hopes to change the way Type 1 diabetes patients are able to manage their health care.

“We see the Digital Sandbox as a great opportunity to take our technology to the next level,” said Ray. “Support for market research will help us prove the effectiveness in terms of acceptability to care providers, patients and families, resulting in better health.”

A Personal Story, A Public Benefit

The story of Heart To Heart Network begins with Ray’s wife, who had heart surgery at within a year of having her first baby. The surgery and rehabilitation were successful; but that was just the start. With a new heart valve in place, Ray’s wife was required to take anticoagulation therapy to prevent clots from forming. Medication compliance required constant monitoring of the INR level to ensure the blood is within therapeutic range.

Ray could find no good way to monitor the INR on a daily basis, and no easy way to communicate with her primary care physician in a timely manner. This gave Ray the motivation to look at ways to improve everyday monitoring of healthcare. With a background and experience as a software programmer, Ray started looking at approaches to help patients and care givers safely monitor health in their home environments.

After several ideas, Ray focused on a remote monitoring system that can be chronic disease specific, and funding from Digital Sandbox allows for specialization and testing of system for Type 1 diabetes pediatric patients. With the help of the Digital Sandbox, Heart To Heart Network will look at proving the product:

• Is acceptable by patients and family members
• Increases communication between providers and patients
• Improves adherence behavior leading to overall wellness

Playing in the Digital Sandbox

Heart To Heart Network is one of the first six innovative companies to be eligible for funding from Digital Sandbox KC, which provides proof-of-concept resources to support early-stage commercialization processes. Support for each Sandbox participant is customized based on the unique needs of the project as well as the resources required to move the product or service forward.

“Heart To Heart is a great example of an entrepreneur using today’s technology and applying to a real world problem,” said Jeff Shackelford, director of Digital Sandbox KC. “Abhi’s firsthand experience with his wife’s condition and his understanding of information technology led him to finding a more timely and efficient way to handle patient needs.”

Mobility Designed creates mobility devices to improve quality of life for those with mobility challenges. Their first product, the M+D™ Crutch, solves the problem of pain and potential damage to armpits, hands and wrists caused by the use of standard crutches. M+D™ Crutches are designed to provide pain free support and a custom ergonomic fit. 

“We are very excited to have gotten this funding from the Digital Sandbox.  It is incredibly rewarding to have an organization like the Sandbox believe in what we are trying to accomplish because it validates all the work we have done,” said Liliana Younger, CEO, Mobility Designed.  “This grant will get us so much closer to making our product a reality.”

People who have to use crutches know how incredibly uncomfortable it can be.  “Honestly, it can be downright painful,” says Digital Sandbox KC executive director, Jeff Shackelford.  “Liliana and team recognized this problem and created a patent-pending product which includes a high level of IP innovation.”   Pain-free mobility is just a step away.  

Liliana Younger completed  UMKC’s E-Scholars program  an intensive entrepreneurial development program offered through the University of Missouri – Kansas City’s Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.  The program is designed to provide promising entrepreneurs with the support and resources needed to launch scalable and sustainable ventures.  E-Scholars has helped to launch more than 160 ventures since its first graduating class in 2011, ranging from enterprise software to health care services to consumer products.  

Digital Sandbox KC and UMKC partnered together to fund startups coming out of the program.  

Mag-Vest is the first magnetic tool vest that lets people carry their tools, screws, nuts and bolts from any working position.  Unlike other solutions that have limited compartments or simply get in the way in tight spaces, Mag-Vest(TM) gives complete freedom to move and place tools in any manner.  Founder, Grant Miner, found tool belts were not designed with the user in mind:  “They just don’t hold everything you need so we decided to completely reinvent how you carry your tools.”  Mag-Vest is the first magnetic tool vest. The design gives the wearer complete freedom to place tools wherever they want. “Tools don’t have to get in the way when you are working in a tight space,” Miner says.

The Digital Sandbox funding aided the startup with website development, optimization and other launch-related projects,” says Jeff Shackelford, executive director of Digital Sandbox KC. “This product is for anyone who uses tools so the market is wide open.”

“I am honored, humbled and grateful that Digital Sandbox KC chose to support Mag-Vest(TM) with this incredibly generous grant,” said Grant Miner, inventor/founder.  

Grant Miner completed  UMKC’s E-Scholars program  an intensive entrepreneurial development program offered through the University of Missouri – Kansas City’s Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.  The program is designed to provide promising entrepreneurs with the support and resources needed to launch scalable and sustainable ventures.  E-Scholars has helped to launch more than 160 ventures since its first graduating class in 2011, ranging from enterprise software to health care services to consumer products.  

Digital Sandbox KC and UMKC partnered together to fund startups coming out of the program.