1st50K award winners announced

The latest round of the 1st50K startup competition has come to a close. Jason and Amanda Todt of Marble Hill, Missouri, and Ann Butler of Richmond, Virginia, have been awarded $50,000 each in cash and pro bono support services for their respective startup companies.

“The founders that were selected for awards this round exhibited the commitment and compassion consistent with successful startups,” competition director James Stapleton said in a news release. “We look forward to Ann, Jason and Amanda being a part of the entrepreneurial community at Codefi and the Marquette Tech District.”

Jason and Amanda Todt are the first locally based winners of the 1st50K competition.

Their startup, Cosmetic-

Tech, is an app designed to connect car owners with mobile technicians who offer on-site cosmetic repairs.

Jason Todt said most people don’t realize the number of mobile businesses that exist that perform services such as paintless dent repair, windshield repair, small bumper repairs and headlight restoration.

“Dealerships use them; body shops use them,” Todt said. “But a lot of retail customers don’t have the access they need to get a hold of these people.”

The CosmeticTech app will cut out the middleman and save consumers time and money they would have spent at a body shop or dealership that outsources the work.

Jason Todt is the general manager of Morlan Chrysler, and Amanda Todt owns the paintless dent-repair company Dents, Hail Yeah.

“She came up with the idea,” Jason Todt said. “And my connections in the car business help.”

The Todts intend to take advantage of the businesses within Codefi to bring the application to fruition.

“They have the expertise and the knowledge to get us started,” Jason Todt said.

He said pitching to the competition board was unlike anything he’d ever done.

“It was a great learning experience,” he said.

Ann Butler is the founder and CEO of Edible Education, which focuses on teaching children about food and nutrition.

Her Richmond, Virginia, company teaches 8,000 children each year about food preparation and nutrition.

Her startup, Edible Education Kitchen a la Cart, is her effort to franchise the business and bring nutrition education to classrooms, libraries and organizations throughout the country.

Kitchen a la Cart is an educational program with online lesson plans. But more notably, it is a high-tech, portable cart that allows the necessary culinary resources to be delivered on-site.

The cart is narrow enough to fit through a classroom door, but when in use, the sides flip up, “and now 10 children can have cutting boards around the kitchen,” which is important, she said — children need to be active in the program, not watching passively.

“This is not a teacher-demo-cart; it’s a people-do-it-cart,” she said.

The program will be marketed to schools, libraries and organizations such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club.

Butler is preparing to move several aspects of her business to Cape Girardeau as part of the agreement as a recipient of the prize.

She said moving to Cape Girardeau will move her closer to the manufacturer in Columbus, Ohio, and give her the opportunity to focus specifically on Kitchen a la Cart.

“We’ve built out Richmond, and everyone can do without me there,” she said of Edible Education. “We have a great team.”

Butler is looking forward to working with the people in the region, from hiring an assistant to networking opportunities.

“People I’ve met say this is a great idea, and the sky’s the limit,” Butler said. “And that’s how we feel, too.”

bbrown@semissourian.com

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