Speaking in a room full of entrepreneurs and speaking about entrepreneurs in general, Angel said: “I want fellow entrepreneurs to know I’m one of their kind. And they’re one of my kind.” No matter how disparate the path,  “I don’t believe in being a lone wolf,” he said. “Being in a band is better than being a solo artist.”

It’s exactly this type of cooperative and community oriented thinking that falls right in line with the decision of Office Divvy, approaching its ninth year, to hold a Startup contest, according to Office Divvy co-founder Ky Ekinci at the top of the evening:

“At Office Divvy we went through this same journey of any kind of Startup: Idea, excitement, adrenaline, disappointment, fearing failure. But through that journey we were with peers all the time, because of the type of business we’re in.  So when we offered this contest, it was to draw out folks who are working on interesting ideas to see if there are any big ideas in our community. Typically all these ideas are thought to be born in Silicone Valley, and the New Yorks of the world. But do we have the right ideas in our own entrepreneurial ecosystem?  And when we have the right match, at Office Divvy we have the right team, the the right people to surround that Startup with, to maybe give them a fighting chance to do something significant.”

It’s this same sentiment you’ll see  in the story of Blue Eye Logo. If you did not read that post, you should. You will then understand this evening was no place for the naysayers.

To hear Gonzales tell it, what Snappy Kraken does is revolutionize the way small businesses handle their marketing, using automation. “What we’re doing is we have a platform and it automates hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of complete marketing campaigns, created by agencies.” They’ve also opened up a marketplace where freelancers and agencies can create recurring revenue so they can move past one-offs.

Falling anywhere between ideation, pre-seed, early-seed, or existing businesses under three years old, there was 30-some competitors vying for the victory. Just a few of those included:  The first national farm-to-table dinner theater; a company that produces electric vehicles for inner-city commuting, summed up visually as a three-wheeled scooter that folds up into a briefcase; and an identity protection app which uses just a finger print to make all transactions.

After hearing the winner speak as well as the other contestants, there was no hard feelings from contestant Bill Kratsas of Gunnar’s Distilling Company:

“We all think alike, we’re all on the same wave length in that we’re trying to create something. There are a lot of things that we trip over. And I’m sure there’s a lot of us tripping over the same things, even though we’re uniquely different. We could all use a little confidence and a little pat on the back.”

When asked, one of the official judges, Mike Davis, or Lawyer Mike D as he’s known, spoke about how he, and other judges, approached making the final decision:

“My criteria looking at this, was what do I find interesting–I took that name, name as in Interesting, to heart. What I thought could actually be successful. And what could touch the most people. They had some of that base-work that some of the companies didn’t. And they knew their market, which was good. And they seemed to have a product that could be successful regionally, nationally, globally.”

When it came to what other companies didn’t do, Davis said there was an apparent gap, in some cases, in the amount of time spent in the application process. “The businesses that went above and beyond to go into the details sat higher with me.  The less depth, the harder to connect, particularly with industries with which one is less familiar.”

His inspiration was this reality: In his words, “A lot of business owners who’re amazing at what they do, amazing technicians, artists, and engineers, but we found that many couldn’t market themselves. In fact a lot of them didn’t have the time or the budget to market themselves. So one of our dreams has been to pretty much democratize amazing agency-level marketing and give that to small business owners.”

What small business owners surprisingly often overlook is answering these most basic questions, he said. “Why am I doing what I’m doing? Who am I trying to reach? And what action am I trying to take?”

That seems self-explanatory, but it takes more time for reflection than many business owners leave themselves.

“They have an affinity for what they’re doing, they start bringing in some revenue and they get caught up in the day-to-day,” he added. “Before you know it, you go a long time without answering that first question.”

The fact that this is what Snappy Kraken does for other businesses, may explain why they were well suited for this competition–if we’re going by Mike Davis’s criteria, certainly.

Just take the name Snappy Kraken, for example. It leaves an impression. One reason is its assailment of a fantasy movie stereotype in an unusual industry. A Kraken is a mythological sea monster often depicted as a giant squid, famous for mercilessly destroying ships. Right now the Snappy Kraken brain trust is chasing companies in the financial industry.

In those businesses you find many similar names and symbols–a lighthouse or a boat, for example. Quite the opposite of what Gonzalez and his cohorts ended up choosing.

Not everyone’s going to love it, but it creates a reaction, he said. “Our Kraken is a friendly guy. He’s cool. If you think of business owners as ships,” contrary to expectations, “he’s helping them out and lifting them up.”