Q&A With the Render Competition Winners, Connect

We are now entering the fourth year of the Render Competition, in which we award $100,000 to a new cohort of 8 startups. The winners use these investments to scale their solution within and beyond the Greater Louisville area. As we open applications for 2023, we’re catching up with the winning founders from last year to hear about their competition experience, lessons learned, advice for future applicants, and an update on what’s to come.

Today we hear from Todd Allen, founder of Connect. Connect helps owners and operators of apartment communities fill their apartments with qualified residents using digital marketing known as geofencing. They drive digital ads to the computers, tablets, and smartphones of their clients’ competitors’ residents. When a resident from the competition applies to a client community, Connect matches the applicant address back to the ad-serve location to build a transparent marketing ROI.

Why did you decide to apply for the Render Competition?

The team at Amplify Louisville turned me on to Render Capital. Last spring, a friend introduced me to members of the Amplify team, and through our conversations about the startup community, the Render Competition came up. As a young company just starting to investigate raising capital, the competition was a great opportunity for Connect to test our product, strategy, and vision with the judges. We figured there was all upside in participating regardless of the outcome, and were very fortunate to be selected as a winner in the 2022 cohort. It was one of the best and most impactful decisions we made in our startup’s history.

How are you using the $100K, and how will it help you scale?

The investment helped us attend a few more national conferences that we could not have attended otherwise. These events are helping expand our sales and marketing reach to new audiences of potential customers. More importantly, the investment kickstarted the development of our MVP platform release.

What did you take away from your interactions with the judges?

As a founder, it is always a little scary to open your business plans to potential scrutiny, but the feedback from our judges was detailed and insightful. In the few cases where judges offered constructive criticism, the feedback was very valuable as well. We are better for the experience.

What is your impression of the Louisville and Southern Indiana startup community?

I think our local startup community is just warming up. There are great things happening locally and a fantastic momentum building. Entrepreneurs are being actively supported through the Render Competition and investment funds, and incubators like Amplify Louisville connect resources, developers, and even software platforms to young startups.

Why do you see Greater Louisville as a good place to grow your business?

We have a great cost of living and quality of life in Louisville. We are geographically well-situated in the US for companies that do business nationally, like Connect. There is also a great pool of potential employees with experience in many of the skill sets needed to conceive, scale, and successfully exit a business. The people are nice, too.

What role do you see your startup playing in the regional economy over the next 5 years?

If I can look back in 5-10 years knowing we made a tangible impact in the lives of our employees and their families, or have given back to young startups through mentoring and sharing our experiences, I will be pleased.

What’s next for your company in 2023?

More customers and new software releases. Our first quarter was record-setting in terms of monthly recurring revenue and new customer growth. We also just secured a new angel investment to help us continue building out further integrations and features in our software platform.