2 Las Vegas companies compete for Startup of the Year

Out of 1,000 worldwide applicants, two Las Vegas startups will compete with 48 others for the title of Startup of the Year in competition at San Jose, California, Tuesday through Thursday.

“This year, we’re super-excited to announce the new Tech.Co Index Fund, which will invest in some of the top companies coming out of Tech. Co’s Startup of the Year program. Deal terms and final investment amounts will be determined by the fund,” said Frank Gruber vie email, the Co-founder, CEO and Executive Editor of Tech.Co, which is co-hosting the conference, called Innovate! and Celebrate, with the Consumer Technology Association.

Gruber said Tech.co received 25 applicants from Nevada.

Las Vegas-based PrayerSpark and PropSwap are the two Las Vegas startups to advance.

“PrayerSpark is an interfaith place where you can get blessings on demand from spiritual leaders all around the world,” said PrayerSpark CEO and Founder Michael Feder “We’re creating very specific software technology apps for providing this support into addiction (recovery), into stress reduction, PTSD (post-traumatic-stress-disorder) and hospice.”

Co-founder Daniel Saurborn, a Las Vegas-based physician who delivers care via telemedicine, called PrayerSpark the “missing link in modern medicine.”

“Doctors are not trained to administer to people’s souls or your spiritual well-being,” Saurborn said, citing factors like family relationships and community involvement as factors that can impact somebody’s spiritual well-being. “But if you feel sick in your soul, you’re going to feel sick.”

PrayerSpark is currently a beta website, but Founder Michael Feder said he hopes to have the first app, which will target addiction recovery, available by November.

“In addiction recovery, the 12-step program is still the gold standard,” Feder said, “and in the 12-step program, eight steps reference a connection with a higher power. Yet, up to 70 percent of people entering recovery don’t have a connection to a higher power.”

That’s where PrayerSpark comes in, connecting people who say they are “spiritual” but not “religious” with spiritual leaders.

Feder and Saurborn have secured 24 spiritual leaders and counting.

“We have Islam represented, and we have Judaism represented, we have Christianity represented, we also on the far opposite end of that sort of thing have a Shamanic Reiki healer. … We have the national head of the Wiccan church. … We have Sikhism,” Feder said, adding that PrayerSpark also recruited Peggy Wellknown Buffalo, a notable member of the Crow Tribe of Montana.

The app will allow a user to scroll through different categories of prayers and then have a spiritual leader pray for that user. Feder and Saurborn are also developing other stress reduction techniques including guided meditations, soundscapes and breathing therapies.

Feder and Saurborn said they are looking forward to the conference to find investors who believe in their cause, and they are seeking $800,000 in their next round of funding.

The other Las Vegas startup heading to Silicon Valley is PropSwap, the first secondary market for active sports bets in Las Vegas.

“PropSwap allows people to make a profit on a bet they could lose, or get out of a bet that they don’t want anymore for a loss,” said PropSwap Co-founder Ian Epstein.

This isn’t a new idea, Epstein said, but he and his partner Luke Pergande think they are the first to execute the idea in a profitable, sustainable way.

“Other people have tried to do it online, via virtual slips,” Pergande said. “We’re actually taking possession of the hard ticket.”

Epstein and Pergande expect to see Apple launch their app this week, which will allow users to upload a picture of their sports bet slip to the app.

If it’s a winning bet, Epstein and Pergande will cash the bet for the slip owner and put that money into their PropSwap account.

“If they want they can withdraw that out of their balance, or they can use that money to buy more bets,” Pergande said.

Epstein and Pergande hope to raise $300,000 in their next round of funding.

Contact Nicole Raz at nraz@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @JournalistNikki on Twitter.