i3 - January/February 2019 - 94

Business

By Jeremy Snow

CT R E P O RTS

CTA's Innovation
Entrepreneur Awards
Honor Excellence

ach year, i3 and the CTA Small Business Council
honor inspiring startups and small businesses leading the consumer technology industry with the
Innovation Entrepreneur Awards - or IEAs. This year's winners exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit by making consumers' lives better. They accepted their awards at CTA's
Innovate Celebrate conference in Boston. The IEAs recognize
three companies with revenues under $30 million: one outstanding executive leader, a small business that demonstrates
innovation and a startup with a unique business model.
Eugene
Tsyrklevich:
Entrepreneur of
the Year

After struggling to
find parking in San
Fransisco, Eugene
Tsyrklevich looked
for a solution.
Tsyrklevich
founded, selffunded and runs Parkopedia, a mobile app
that allows drivers to find and pay for
parking spaces. The app is available in
8,000 cities across 75 countries. The company collaborates with the biggest automotive, mapping and navigation
companies like BMW, Mazda and
Garmin. Tsyrklevich didn't get here alone,
thanks to the help of his roughly 100-person staff. At Parkopedia, he has created a
culture with open communication and
doughnut-filled mentor meetings, while
offering his staff paid time off to volunteer.
Tsyrklevich said his leadership style is
inspired by his childhood in Moldova,
one of the poorest countries in Europe.
"I've seen firsthand the impact of charity," he said. "We try to give back whenever we can, however we can." He added,
"One of the biggest changes that we see
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

coming is in autonomous cars where the
vehicles will park themselves. We are
developing the technology and functionality that goes into that so it's really
groundbreaking and very exciting."

Qardio: Small Business of the Year

Qardio set out with a lofty goal: eliminate heart disease. While ambitious,
Qardio is on the right track, transforming health care with its unmatched
hardware and apps providing medicalgrade data for doctors. Qardio sells
three products: a smart blood pressure
monitor, a smart scale and body analyzer and a wireless electrocardiography
monitor - the first of its kind. Each
product gives doctors remote access to

pre-analyzed information they can
reliably use to make diagnoses and
check-ups. Founded by Marco Peluso
and Rosario Iannella, Qardio was created after Peluso's father suffered a
stroke. Without access to the right
information, it took doctors months to
determine its cause. "Qardio wants to
bridge the gap between wellness products and true medical assistance," said
Alexis Zervoglos, Qardio's chief business officer. "We're taking wellness and
turning it into health and we believe
that is a massive trend."

Benjilock:
Startup of
the Year

From an ambitious student
from the
Dominican
Republic to a
contestant on the
show Shark Tank,
Robbie Cabral -
the founder, CEO and inventor of
Benjilock - has seen his company skyrocket. His device, a rechargeable padlock with biometric fingerprint
technology, quickly gained attention at
CES and was named a CTA Innovation
Awards honoree. Cabral then appeared
on Shark Tank, where his company
received a $200,000 investment from
venture capitalist Kevin O'Leary.
Benjilock has partnered with Hampton
hotels and Ace Hardware, while also
seeing strong success on the consumer
market. But for Cabral, the best part
has been the chance to pass his success on to his family and employees.
"When I came to America, I knocked
on a lot of doors and now I'm going to
be able to give a yes to someone who
wants a job," he said. "That is a very
rewarding experience."
GO ONLINE: To see videos of the winners,
visit CTA.tech.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

https://www.getqardio.com/en https://benjilock.com/ https://www.parkopedia.com/ http://www.CTA.tech

i3 - January/February 2019

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