Vergas Business Selected as Finalist for West Central Trailblazer Challenge

Emily Reno, a Vergas area entrepreneur, has been selected to compete as a finalist in the Business Plan Pitch Competition.

VERGAS (KDLM) – A Vergas business has been named one of five finalists for the West Central Trailblazer Challenge, a new competition open to all West Central Minnesota residents with plans for a new company or business that have been incorporated for less than a year.

Mezclada, from Vergas, an online learning platform for beginning farmers will now pitch their company at ILT Studios on April 13 for a chance to win a $5,000 prize.

“The West Central Trailblazer Challenge was created to equip entrepreneurs and innovators to disrupt the status quo and create meaningful change while creating more opportunities to address the biggest challenges across our communities,” said Nick Tietz, Founder and CEO of ILT Studios. “The five finalists are great examples of people with excellent ideas for blazing a new trail.”

A list of the five finalists is below:

Hummingbird Golf, from Collegeville, is a pioneering luxury golf brand that aims to revolutionize the golf luxury product industry by bringing thoughtful product engineering to the hand of every golfer. Hummingbird’s 6-in-1 golf multi-tool features include a ball alignment stencil, sharp groove cleaner, magnet, bottle opener, ball-mark repair tool and club-rest. Part of Hummingbird’s appeal is that its retail price of $19 bridges the gap between $6 plastic tools and $70 Swiss Army Knife tools, not all of which have Hummingbird’s features.

Impacks, from St. Cloud, is a platform designed to improve the back-to-school shopping experience for parents, while also supporting educators and classrooms. Impacks launched in 2020 and has run two pilots over the past two years, successfully bringing to market a customized, prepackaged school supply kit solution. Impacks is now developing a classroom subscription product that would become the “piggy bank” for the classroom: Impacks would be used to collect money from parents on a monthly or annual basis, and those dollars would accumulate in an account that educators could access through a mobile app to buy the supplies they need throughout the year.

Mezclada, from Vergas, is an online learning platform for beginning farmers – whether from a farm family or are first-generation farmers – that provides training and solutions to accessing land and capital for historically marginalized farmers. Unlike existing training programs that focus on technical skills, Mezclada helps farmers tap into resources by releasing limiting beliefs, mastering manifestation and understanding their human design.

Piivately, from St. Cloud, is a cyber security company built for mid-sized companies that are stewards of customers’ personal information and are currently dissatisfied with the fragmented landscape that lacks standards when it comes to securing personal data. Piivately’s solution is an end-to-end encrypted database as a service that can connect to existing infrastructure and solve the problem of customers’ data not being adequately protected. Unlike inhouse systems, Piivately has a comprehensive suite of features tailored to safeguarding personal information and proactively countering evolving threats

Trimyxs, from Moorhead, is the name of the first-ever universal push lawnmower attachment. The Trimyxs allows consumers to not only mow their lawn but also trim and edge all at the same time. This previously time-consuming chore is now made simple with the push of a trigger. The Trimyxs has been engineered with buyers in mind, created with three easily attachable parts that are compatible with most standard name brand lawnmowers (e.g., Honda, Cub Cadet, Ego, Troy-Bilt, Toro, etc.). The Trimyxs was designed to be simple, convenient and time saving.