The birds were chirping, the bees were buzzing, and Kentucky’s best entrepreneurs have come together to compete for the title of April 2018 5 Across champion! Our second 5 Across of 2018 was jam-packed with noisemakers, a surprise appearance from Kentucky’s Lt. Governor, and of course, the areas best up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

First up was Zid Zid, a language learning platform for young children. Wife and husband duo, Julie Klear and Moulay Essakalli, created this app to reinvent the way in which children can learn new languages. According to their website, the app uses “the importance of play and positive human interactions” in order to stimulate kids in a way that is long lasting.

Next was Whoo, a new app that helps users identify visitors. By replacing the traditional doorbell, Whoo gives users the opportunity to see guests before and potentially keep them safe from unwanted strangers. With time, Whoo’s technology is able to recognize and remember frequent visitors in order to inform the user more appropriately of its visitors.

While on a trip to South Carolina, Nate Antetomaso realized that most traveling sports fans get to their destination without a set itinerary and are left with an unfulfilling trip. AwayGame aims to change just that. Using the traveler’s interests, hobbies, events attended, and more, AwayGame is able to curate a solid, specific list of entertainment for users to ensure that they never have a wasted vacation again.

The next company introduced a new, interactive way for users to be charitable! With Cherry, users can donate and support charities, while being rewarded for menial tasks, such as simply logging into the app.

Right before the last pitch of the night, the audience was met with a very special guest— Lt. Governor Jenean M. Hampton. Having a state official here support for entrepreneurs made this 5 Across all the more special.

The final business of the night introduced a new meaning to eating in. With the Chez app, users can hire a chef to cook a meal in the comfort of their own home. The service is aiming for larger cities and is bound to change the way most people see food delivery.

“Kyle and I conceived the idea for Chez during the summer of 2017 as part of a project for our MBA at Bellarmine,” said co-owner Russ Davenport. “The project was for our Marketing and Finance classes, where we were tasked with coming up with a new venture that was “blue ocean”. Kyle and I both have experience in the hospitality industry and we thought that this idea had a chance of working.”

With the final pitch complete, the judges convened to decide who would be the 5 Across champion. Anxious chatter filled the room while the judges deliberated. Although all teams proved themselves worthy 5 Across contestants, only one could be named the winner.

As a hush fell over the room as the judges emerged, and the crowd knew it was almost time for the big announcement, but first the awesomevote app winner was to be announced. With a drumroll, Zid Zid was announced the the audience favorite and winner of $50.

Next up was the big reveal, and with the help of a massive roar from the audience, Chez was announced the winner of the April 2018 5 Across!

“We had pretty low expectations going into the event, as we had just come off of Idea State U where we failed to place in the top 4,” said Davenport. “We had a short time to adjust our pitch to the short 5 minutes that you are given at 5 Across, which was another challenge. The one thing that we were excited about was that we thought the judges at 5 Across were true entrepreneurs and we thought that we could get our message across to them.”

Join us for the June 5 Across at Alltech’s Shrewsbury Hall that’s bound to be bigger and better!