A day after being chosen as finalists for the fall 2015 NC IDEA grants, two Wilmington startups talked about what the money would help them accomplish, should they be selected for one of several grants.

“That grant would allow us to build our integrations – to scale quicker and become more profitable,” said Jim Kittridge, the founder and CEO of Brand Assurance. The venture works primarily with apartment developments, helping them protect their online reputations by addressing problems with tenants that otherwise might lead to negative online reviews.

Surgilum, which develops surgical and other medical tools for doctors, would use the funds for expanded marketing efforts and to help address the costs of bringing a medical device to market, especially as the company introduces its RoboMarker device in new international markets, said company president Debbie Brown.

Brown emphasized the cost of meeting federal regulations for medical devices.

"With a startup medical device, the hurdles are very difficult, as opposed to medical devices that have venture capital backing," she said.

Nevertheless, in the past few months the RoboMarker has entered some European markets and, more recently, has been introduced in Australia and New Zealand.

"Our product is revolutionary," she said.

The remaining seven startups on Durham-based NC IDEA’s  list of nine finalist companies are based in the Triangle. Finalists were chosen from a group of 22 semi-finalists from across the state, according to the organization’s news release.

The finalists will present before a review panel comprised of experienced investors, industry experts and entrepreneurs and four to six grant recipients will be announced in early December. The grants, which are up to $50,000 per recipient, “support business plan research and development, reduce the risk of early failure and advance projects to the point of suitability for angel or venture capital investment,” the release stated.

Reached Tuesday for comment about their grant finalist status, representatives of both companies were at industry conferences. Kittridge was at the 2015 National Multifamily Housing Council OpTech Conference in San Diego, where Brand Assurance was a semi-finalist in a grant competition.

Brown and her eye surgeon husband, Surgilum founder and CEO Alan Brown, were at an Amercian Academy of Ophthalmology conference in Las Vegas, where they were talking to surgeons and possible distributors. 

Brand Assurance and Surgilum were winners of 2015 Coastal Entrepreneur Awards in Wilmington this past spring in the technology and biotechnology categories, respectively. Since then, Kittridge said, his venture has been growing at an average of 180 percent per month and has enlisted clients along the East Coast from Florida to Pennsylvania. Brand Assurance hopes to expand to the West Coast soon, he said.

NC IDEA is a private foundation committed to supporting business innovation and economic advancement in North Carolina. The organization serves as a catalyst for young, high-growth technology companies by promoting initiatives that “foster growth and guide these companies to become major contributors to the state’s business community,” according to the release. The foundation awards grants through its spring and fall competitions and, since its inception in 2006, has awarded nearly $4 million to 98 companies across the state.

Several other Wilmington-based startups have made it to NC IDEA’s semi-finalist round in earlier grant competitions, but thus far no local company has received a grant. In May, there was one local finalist: KWIPPED, an online equipment rental startup founded by Greater Wilmington Business Journal co-owner Robert Preville.