Two Birmingham-area companies took home top prizes in Alabama Launchpad’s Cycle 1 2023 finale.
Domestique Coffee, based in Birmingham, won the $50,000 early-seed stage competition and Cahaba Fire Company, based in Trussville, won $25,000 for the concept stage.
Domestique, founded by brothers Nathan and Michael Pocus, has several brick-and-mortar locations and wholesale products, too.
“Winning Launchpad will allow us to finalize our mobile user app that we’ve been developing, and it’s going to take our business to the next level,” said Nathan Pocus. “Now, we’re going to be able to really unify all of our sales channels into one, easy-to-use mobile user app and start to fulfill our customer’s needs of easy access to high-quality coffee.”
Cahaba Fire Company, founded by Ryan King and Ben Horton, develops products for fire departments and first responders.
“It was a success before we won, and this $25,000 is icing on the cake,” King said. “It will boost us right where we need to be with production.”
Alabama Launchpad is a program of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama and is conducted in partnership with Innovate Alabama. The competition has funded 114 Alabama startups since its inception in 2006.
