The John Ruffatto Startup Challenge set a new record for participant turnout.

On April 17, the event held in the Gallagher Business Building saw Schafer Bungay, founder of Flathead Fragrance Co., claim the first place prize of $15,000. This milestone marks a significant structural moment for the competition, reflecting growing interest in Montana’s startup ecosystem.

The other companies that were in the top three included Novara, a fiber optic sensing to detect underwater military attacks, which won second place, and Macro-lite, which plans to use research done by the Berkeley Pit to find a shelf stable antibiotic to fight infections in war torn countries, took third place.

This year’s competition boasted over 100 teams that were parsed down to the 12 finalists that competed

Camden Capser attributed a lot of the success to the director of the Startup Challenge, Erik Guzik.

“In 2024, we established the Startup Studio and it’s one of the first of its kind,” Guzik said. “We looked at how to revamp, and give better support for students.” The Startup Studio offers help for students prior to the competition day to get feedback on designs and prepare for the competition.

Hustle Fundraise is a fundraising website that helps make it easier for teams to fundraise more actively by allowing multiple transactions. Hustle Fundraise launched two months ago and has raised almost $45,000 for teams.

John Ruffatto Startup Challenge notches record number of participants | In Print | montanakaimin.com
By Colby Suko-Clark / Montana Kaimin, Montana Kaimin

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2026 Finalists

Backcountry Brain is a search engine for recreators without cell phone service. Using a satellite messenger, it can text any question to a phone number. The service searches the internet and instantly returns an easy-to-understand answer. Backcountry Brain helps recreators affordably stay connected to the outside world when they have no service.

Balance Labs is a portable muscle testing device and mobile app designed to help athletes identify strength imbalances and prevent injuries. The device allows users to measure muscle force at home, while the app visualizes results, tracks progress and generates targeted workouts to correct imbalances. By making objective strength testing simple and accessible, Balance Labs aims to shift athletic training from reactive injury treatment to proactive injury prevention and smarter, data-driven performance decisions.

BriteHatch delivers academic grade educational software for all ages. Its AI models are built in-house by analyzing user patterns to provide tailor fit learning curriculums. The platform optimizes, per individual user, the speed of learning, prevents forgetting and accounts for personalized learning goals and user interests.

Flathead Fragrance Co. is a Montana-inspired fragrance brand that creates premium fragrances tied to iconic places in the Flathead Valley and Glacier National Park. Each scent is designed to capture the feeling of a real location, allowing customers to relive meaningful memories through fragrance. The company sells direct-to-consumer online and through local retailers. The long-term vision is to build a nationally recognized fragrance brand rooted in authentic place-based storytelling.

HcareGo LLC is a healthcare HR PaaS built for rural and underserved communities. Its staffing marketplace connects licensed caregivers with healthcare facilities for short-term contracts. Caregivers set their own rates, stay current on licensure and pick up shifts on their terms. Facilities get fast access to vetted, local talent, preventing dangerous staffing shortages and protecting patient care. AI agents automate on-boarding, credential verification, and scheduling, reducing administrative burden for both sides.

Hustle Fundraise LLC is a crowdfunding platform designed for athletes, Greek life, student groups and nonprofits to raise money through targeted email and text campaigns. The platform simplifies fundraising with pre-built templates, automated outreach and seamless payment processing, maximizing donor engagement and results. Unlike traditional fundraisers, Hustle eliminates upfront costs, making the process easier and more effective. By combining technology with a performance-based model, Hustle empowers groups to fundraise smarter, faster and more successfully than ever before.

indelible.Blob is a “sovereign stack” built to combat the crisis of trust in digital media. Using a multi-chain architecture (Solana, Sui) and hardware-backed attestation on Solana Seeker phones, the platform proves the authenticity of digital media at the moment of capture. It creates a tamper-proof, cryptographically verifiable chain of custody, empowering the initial beachhead market of insurance carriers with immutable evidence to combat fraud and streamline claims.

Macro-light will develop highly effective, shelf-stable and portable antibiotic products such as pills, creams and sprays using UM research of the Berkeley Pit in Butte. It will target the outdoor, emergency medical response market. The intention of the product will be to provide infection treatment and prevention to remote and/or war-torn areas. The product will combat and prevent resistant infections that others on the market cannot.

Netikos is an all-in-one kit for at home, in the field, or point-of-care detection of the presence of specified genes or genotypes. Using loop-mediated isothermal amplification technology, Netikos aims to provide private and immediate genetic status results to the privacy conscious consumer, with the hopes of eventually branching out to members of the pharmaceutical, agricultural and environmental industries whose work could be aided by a rapid and field-ready genomic tool.

Novara Sensing Corp. leverages deep expertise in fiber optic sensing, signal processing and the defense industry to provide uniquely powerful monitoring solutions at speed. It is building a fully compliant defense product and services company. And it is developing technology that can be deployed to directly monitor threats, to unlock the potential of existing systems or to serve as a sentinel to keep warfighters safe and the systems they depend on operational.

Ownable helps content creators turn their audiences into real consumer brands. While most influencers are limited to selling low-value merchandise like shirts or mugs, Ownable enables them to launch high-quality products tailored to their communities. It handles product design, sourcing, manufacturing, inventory and fulfillment so creators can focus on their audience. Creators today can influence what people buy, but they rarely own what they sell. Ownable changes that.

PlayLock streamlines communication from play-caller to player using smart wristbands that display text through low-power radio transmission. The business model will be a hardware enabled SaaS, where teams will purchase the hardware and pay annually for the services. Founded by football players for football teams.

STRATHEX has developed an analytics platform, KYTHEREX, that helps mid-market timber mills predict wood supply availability, pricing trends and delivery timing within their procurement zones. Log costs represent 70% to 75% of a sawmill’s total operating costs, yet most of the 200 to 400 mid-market U.S. mills manage procurement with spreadsheets and phone calls. KYTHEREX replaces that with machine learning forecasts built on historical pricing, seasonal patterns and regional supply data.

WALT: Worth a Lawyer’s Time is like Angie’s List for lawyers. Montanans in need of legal assistance will interact with WALT’s AI to determine the extent of their legal issues. WALT then will send their information to appropriate Montana law firm partners who may submit competitive bids to the Montana clients. A direct-to-consumer section also will provide LegalZoom-esque services for customers in need of LLC agreements, wills, landlord-tenant agreements, debt default answers and similar products.