2023 OVF Awards

May 18th, 2023 | 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Dr, Oklahoma City, OK

Keynote Speaker
405 Business Magazine's 2022 Innovator of the Year

Mike Beckham

Chief Executive Officer

The Oklahoma Venture Forum, to recognize successful Oklahoma businesses' achievements, has produced these awards biennially since 1989. The OVF Venture of the Year, Most Promising New Venture, Entrepreneurial Champion Award, and the Award for Economic Impact are four of the most prestigious recognitions a company can receive.

The awards represent the triumph of the entrepreneurial dream and spirit in Oklahoma.

OVF Awards honor those who do more than run a business. They celebrate the achievement of industrial progress or potential balanced with innovation, compassionate leadership, and honor those who emphasize investments in the human spirit and the bottom line.

The Award for Economic Impact is bestowed by the OVF Award Selection Committee and recognizes an individual or an organization for exceptional contributions to the Oklahoma economy. The Oklahoma Venture Forum’s Award for Economic Impact has been bestowed to many impactful organizations including The Oklahoma Thunder, Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, and The Chickasaw Nation.

The Venture of the Year award recognizes the top company in the category who has shown material economic impact or innovation within its market. Past winners in this category include DROV Technologies, Watkins+Conti Products, SendaRide, Speirs New Technology and Moleculera.

The winner of the Most Promising New Venture must demonstrate the viability of its primary product/service, which may be shown through capital raises/grants, sales revenues or potential economic impact or innovation. Past winners in this category include Skydweller Aero, Galvanic Energy, Plasma Bionics, Exaptive and Tailwind.

The newest award category is the Entrepreneurial Champion award that recognizes an Oklahoma Legislator distinguishing themselves as an entrepreneurial champion supporting and growing opportunities, ecosystems, and growth potential for IT & Technology small business and economic entrepreneurship within Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Venture Forum is a non-profit organization formed in 1987. OVF is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurial ecosystems and economic development in Oklahoma. The organization provides opportunities for investors, entrepreneurs, and others to exchange business ideas and experiences to foster growth of new and existing small businesses.

The event is open to OVF members and sponsors and guests, with limited capacity. Please register online through the website: www.ovf.org and please invite a guest.

For inquiries about the awards event, please contact Che’ Loessberg at che@ovf.org.

Nominees for the Venture of the Year Awards must have (1) launched its primary product/service within the past ten years, (2) generated sales revenues of $1.0 million or more in its last fiscal year, and (3) shown material economic impact or innovation within its market. Capital raised can be considered and should be noted on the application. All nominated companies must be independently owned and operated (not a division, subsidiary, or controlled affiliate of another company) and headquartered in Oklahoma.

Evaluation criteria for the Venture of the Year Award will be based on:

product or service innovation

revenues and capital raised

profitability

management quality

market penetration and growth

economic impact

industry and community reputation

The award winners will be selected by judges from the OVF membership. The judges will review the information on the forms and may request additional company and financial information. All information will be kept confidential.

Nominations/applications must be completed and returned by January 26, 2023, to the Oklahoma Venture Forum at the address on the form.

If you have any questions concerning the awards, please contact OVF Executive Director, Che’ Loessberg at (405) 604-4775 or che@ovf.org.

APPLY OR NOMINATE ONLINE

DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION/NOMINATION PACKAGE

Nominees for the Most Promising New Venture Award (1) must have begun development of its primary product/service within the past three years; and (2) must demonstrate the viability of its primary product/service, which may be shown through capital raises/grants, sales revenues or potential economic impact or innovation. All nominated companies must be independently owned and operated (not a division, subsidiary, or controlled affiliate of another company) and headquartered in Oklahoma.

Evaluation criteria for the Most Promising New Venture Award will be based on:

product or service innovation

minimum viable product

actual or potential revenue growth

sales backlog over next few quarters

funding

leadership/management quality

market potential

potential economic impact

industry and community recognition

Nominations/applications must be completed and returned by January 26, 2023, to the Oklahoma Venture Forum at the address on the form.

If you have any questions concerning the awards, please contact OVF Executive Director, Che’ Loessberg at (405) 604-4775 or che@ovf.org.

APPLY OR NOMINATE ONLINE

DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION/NOMINATION PACKAGE

The Oklahoma Venture Forum, as a means of publicly recognizing the achievements of successful Oklahoma businesses, has produced the awards biennially since 1989. There are a variety of ways to support these important recognitions. Use the button below to view the options.

Support the OVF Awards

A Look Back at the 2022 OVF Awards

Economic Impact Award WINNER

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

The Oklahoma Venture Forum is honored to recognize Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. In 1946, a group of Oklahoma physicians and business leaders saw the potential that biomedical research held. On Aug. 28 of that year, Oklahoma’s Secretary of State granted the charter of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.All told, 7,500 Oklahomans donated a total of $2.5 million to build laboratories and a research hospital. And what began as a two-person operation in 1946 has grown into an internationally recognized research institute.OMRF now employs more than 450 staff members who study cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, and diseases of aging. Their discoveries have yielded hundreds of patents and three life-saving drugs now available in hospitals and clinics around the world

2022 Venture of the Year

Medefy

The Medefy app helps everyday people make expert healthcare decisions in under 60 seconds. While 84% of American employees say they struggle to afford care because of the complexities of their company health benefits, health insurance, and healthcare providers, the Medefy platform makes it easy to understand your options, navigate to low-cost, high-quality providers, and get affordable care. Users can use a variety of digital decision tools within the app, as well as in-app text communication with Medefy’s care team – live healthcare experts available 24/7 to help navigate users to care. Launched in 2018 to two employer groups, Medefy now services approx. 1200 employer groups with users in all fifty states.

2022 Most Promising New Venture

The SnapBack

Pregnancy has ample resources and is often a beautiful experience, however postpartum is isolating and does not come with a manual. The average time between delivery and the first postpartum visit is 6 weeks and 40% of women don’t make it there. The SnapBack app provides delivery specific rehab techniques, time released what to expect for the baby/mom, tracking features and an anonymous community forum; it is the only all-in-one, evidence based postpartum resource and community mother’s need. We create tech for the future, we need to create tech for moms who birth the future.

Entrepreneurial Champion

Oklahoma Senator Jessica GarvinSenator Jessica Garvin was first elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 2020 to represent Senate District 43, encompassing communities in Garvin, Grady, McClain, and Stephens counties.

Jessica grew up in Marlow and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in communication and a minor in pyschology. In addition to serving as a state Senator, Garvin is a nursing home and assisted living administrator. She also serves as the executive vice president of Bison Health Care Management and is the co-owner of Kindful Hospice. In her spare time, Garvin is an avid sportswoman who loves hunting and fishing. She and her husband, Stephen, have three children and have also served as foster parents. Senator Garvin is a champion of modernizing technology services delivered to citizens of Oklahoma. She is passionate about helping technology businesses that choose to have their headquarters in Oklahoma be given support to grow and thrive. In her first term in office, she has partnered with the Center for Advancement of Science & Technology (OCAST), The Oklahoma Innovative Technology Alliance (OITA), and many others to help strengthen investments in Oklahoma technology, diversify our economy, and create high paying jobs.

Incubator Tenant Award

TetherTech

Billy Turner owned a small trucking company. One of his trucks showed up at his terminal and it had a set of dual wheels missing from the trailer. When the driver was questioned about it, he had no idea when and where he had lost them. This was extremely alarming.

About a year prior to this happening, a truck with another company lost a set of dual wheels and tires off of his trailer, which crossed the center median striking a Jeep, causing 2 teenage fatalities and injuring 2 others. The parents of the teens were following behind and witnessed the accident. This accident occurred just a few miles from Billy’s terminal on I-40 close to Weatherford, Oklahoma.

After hearing of this horrible accident and losing a set off of one of his own trailers, he immediately went to work looking for a solution to fix this problem, only to find there were no solutions out there.

Billy knew that this was a problem that needed to be solved. So, he went to work developing his own system. This was the beginning of what is now known as the Tethertech safety system.