Puerto Rico startup clinches industry summit ‘People Choice Award’ honor
San Juan-based Hallo, one of the Top 100 startup finalists that competed in the recent 9th Annual Startup of the Year Summit in the innovation hub of Tampa, FL, took the “People’s Choice Award” for Puerto Rico.
The awards ceremony took place Jan. 27th during the three-day event sponsored by Established with sponsors such as, Embarc Collective, ReliaQuest, UBS, and Hubspot.
The Puerto Rico founded company put forth a three-minute pitch alongside 99 other companies vying for the grand title. Companies were divided into six rooms, each with pre-assigned judges that used a rubric scoring system to award points.
All points were then collected from the rooms at the end of the competition. The top five companies that garnered the most points were chosen to compete on the final stage in front of the public audience and a new set of distinguished judges.
The companies that participated in this event, such as Hallo, also competed for a different award based on people’s vote, the People’s Choice Award presented by ReliaQuest. All finalists were encouraged to send out the voting page to all their supporters to gather up votes.
Additionally, through the competition’s Slack channel and LinkedIn, companies could introduce their company in an effort to promote discovery and garner more votes from other companies and their supporters.
“The competition was fierce, but we did well. Though we didn’t win the grand title, we won the People’s Choice Award,” said Jan Reese Rondina, CEO of Hallo.
“To me, this holds more validation. Since we are a platform serving people, it’s a big win to be voted as the winner of the people’s choice award. Talk about getting it right,” he said.
Hallo is a peer-to-peer marketplace that’s democratizing how users access on-demand services and on-demand work by increasing efficiency, inclusivity, and affordability. Inspired by the people in Puerto Rico with limitations that affect their ability to earn supplemental income in the gig economy, the company’s mission is to make an equal and sustainable system of offering and booking services that is accessible for all users.
The app-based platform specially designed a service provider app to empower more to maximize their earning potential.
