Sprint’s Pinsight Media+ jumps into project funding for KC area startups

Sprint’s Pinsight Media+ has teamed up with Digital Sandbox KC to help startup businesses in their early stages with project funding and app development resources.

Pinsight is the Sprint Corp. subsidiary involved in the Sprint Accelerator that puts 10 startups a year through an intensive 90-day program to advance their development. Sprint has revamped the accelerator to target more developed startups, specifically those with products, revenues and customers and which are ready to ramp up.

It now is working with Digital Sandbox KC, which helps companies much earlier in the startup process. Digital Sandbox helps companies build a prototype to attract further investment, hire programmers to develop or enhance an existing product, provide legal advice with issues surrounding a business or other proof-of-concept projects.

Digital Sandbox KC will provide $25,000 in project funding for companies it selects.

Pinsight will provide additional resources for the companies that have a consumer product in mind. Pinsight plans to back one such project a month, said Brooke Bobe, Pinsight’s head of business development for the West Coast. She also oversees Pinsight’s Rollout operation.

Rollout will work with the startups that Pinsight backs to build and market an app that includes advertising. Money made from advertising will pay back costs for the app and marketing beyond the $25,000.

Pinsight got the idea for Rollout from one of the first companies in the Sprint Accelerator in 2014.

Sickweather, a Baltimore-based startup, had a website to help consumers watch for signs of flu in their neighborhood. It got help from Pinsight to build its app and was able to repay the costs from advertising revenue that the app generated, Bobe said. From that experience, Pinsight started Rollout.

This story was originally published November 7, 2016 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Sprint’s Pinsight Media+ jumps into project funding for KC area startups."