Owlet Wins Big at Verizon Competition

PROVO, Utah – Dec 15, 2015 – From its beginning three years ago as winners of Brigham Young University’s International Business Model Competition to being awarded a Verizon Powerful Answers Award this week, startup Owlet continues to prove it is an innovative problem solver.

“We’re out to change the world and make a difference, so to be considered a ‘powerful answer’ by a large corporation like Verizon and the recognition that comes with it is very important to us,” says Jordan Monroe, Owlet co-founder and 2014 BYU entrepreneurship alum.

Owlet created a bootie for babies to wear while sleeping that sends real-time alerts to parents’ smartphones based on their children’s vital signs. After 10 months and three rounds of competition promoting its product, the Owlet team flew to San Francisco for a livestreamed broadcast event and the announcement of the winners. There the company was awarded $250,000 and third place in the Internet of Things category, which looked for companies providing innovative solutions to global problems through technology that shares information between devices and people. In addition, the team got to meet with Arianna Huffington, creator of the Huffington Post, who spoke at the event.

The Powerful Answers Awards are part of a challenge for entrepreneurs and companies to demonstrate their ability to provide innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. For Owlet, founded by several Brigham Young University alumni during their studies in Provo, the prize money will be used to expand their product and help save sleeping infants’ lives.

“They asked us what we would do with the prize money,” Monroe concludes. “I said we’d do the same thing as if we didn’t win — we’re going to make this happen. We’re happy to win third place and a quarter of a million dollars, but it’s onward and upward. This is a train that’s not going to stop.”

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems and public management. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,300 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.