Denver's branch of
thoughtbot launched its Cultivate Colorado challenge this week. The challenge will help a Colorado organization design, build and launch an app that's aimed at helping solve a social or environmental issue. The IT firm estimates that the services for designing and developing the app for the winner will have a value of up to $150,000.
"Our goal is to collaborate with a Colorado-based organization and utilize human-centered design practices to solve a difficult problem facing the community or world," says Andrew Cohen, the designer who spearheaded the challenge.
The competition is open to a variety of organizations, explains Rachel Cope, a thoughtbot product designer, that helped develop the initiative. "We didn't want to put a super-strict parameter on that," she says. As such, the initiative is open to nonprofits, companies with a social mission and B Corps.
"It's the first time we've launched this competition," Cope says. "A group of us here in the office were thinking about how we could do something for the community and thought this would be a good opportunity. A lot of us had worked at nonprofits in the past and we wanted to do something to benefit our state."
The competition is open though March 15 and organizations can register their ideas via a simple sign-up sheet
here. The contest organizers at thoughtbot will evaluate each proposal, narrow it to three, reach out to the finalists and make their choice from there, Cope explains.
While this is the first time thoughtbot has launched the competition, Cope says the Boston-based company could replicate Cultivate Colorado at its other locations, which include New York, San Francisco and Stockholm.
Contact Confluence Denver Innovation & Jobs News Editor Chris Meehan with tips and leads for future stories at chris@confluence-denver.com.
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