20 sky-high startups in Boulder

Boulder abounds with plenty of high-powered startups to inspire anyone pursuing a technology or business major. These emerging companies are showing up in the news and making an impact in their markets. Bookmark their websites to explore their new ways of thinking and follow their paths to success. These up-and-coming wizards have wild, wide-ranging ideas, from building new communities to cashing in rewards for grocery shopping.

The 20 most exciting startups in Boulder, Colorado

Captimo: Social marketing meets brand promotion meets mobile video. With this app, customers can tag friends, comment, respond to surveys, geo-tag and share along a video's timeline. Captimo links mobile video with a Facebook app that hosts video contests, promotions and research projects. Clients can also track and manage their campaigns and gain insights into consumer reactions.

Creative Brain Studios: This technology lets a developer build a game that can run on a galaxy of different platforms, from smartphones to computers to the latest gaming device. Techies with big ideas for online, mobile and social games can customize the HTML5 JavaScript editor from Creative Brain Studios. The company also offers post-development support like cloud hosting, stats tracking and in-game advertising options.

Flextrip: This distribution network connects travelers with tens of thousands of bookable tours and activities. Travel companies can use Flextrip's direct marketing API for pre-trip emails and other techniques. Suppliers can sell their products to a targeted audience as this extensive database promotes tours and trips on well-known consumer travel websites.

FullContact: Staying in touch with business contacts can be the key to closing a big deal. Juggling phones, emails and other communication platforms could make it challenging to keep leads and contacts up to date and organized. FullContact offers contact management at full throttle, with secure cloud storage, de-duplication and data merging from multiple systems.

GoSpotCheck: Here's a way to earn money by shopping. Consumers go to stores and restaurants to do spot checks and gather information, answer questions, and take pictures of products with their smartphones. The result can be cash or rewards.

InboxFever: This technology uses the power of email, which is actually a massive global data delivery platform that works on diverse devices. Developers can use the InboxFever Email API to assign an email address to an application. Businesses can use the API to deploy applications across platforms, with any email client. InboxFever notes that independent, practical email-powered apps can improve productivity and customer service.

Kapost: When businesses focus on building quality products in the most cost-effective way, there's not much time left for online marketing campaigns. Kapost helps promote brands through an organized content marketing plan, with analysis and metrics for production, distribution and traffic. Kaboom -- an online marketing solution.

MobileDay: This app provides an easy way to call in to conferences with just one touch, from any location. Professionals on the go can connect to audio meetings without dialing, inputting pin codes and remembering conference details. MobileDay offers freedom to roam without being tied down by con calls, and it's free for iPhone and Android.

Mocavo: Individuals searching for their roots can find millions of family history resources on one website and access a genealogy search engine storing more than 6 billion names. Mocavo and its vertical search engine were designed to automate genealogical research. Mocavo also lets users post content such as photographs of ancestors and old records.

Occipital: Talk about sharing a vision -- This startup creates computer vision products for mobile devices. Occipital is the brains behind the 360 Panorama app for iOS and Android. Before 360 Panorama, these wizards designed RedLaser, a mobile barcode-scanning app that eBay went shopping for in 2010.

Prediculous: Social gaming based on real life -- that's what Prediculous is proud of. Titles include Bracket Insanity, a winner during March Madness 2012, and Aikman Fantasy QA, a social fantasy football game on Facebook. And don't forget the Allstate Challenge for the BCS College Football National Championship and the BET 2 Big 2 Pick second-screen experience for the BET Awards show.

RoundPegg: This scientific process guides businesses through the hiring maze so they can find employees that match the company culture and team dynamics. Evaluating personalities and fit with manager and coworkers helps human resources professionals find wonder women and a few good men who've got the right stuff.

Rush Bowls: Hungry people in a rush can find wholesome, natural food by ordering online or dropping in to Rush storefronts. Recipes like Love & Chocolate offer nutrition for people on the go. Rush Bowls are designed for anyone from athletes to moms to kids on their way out the door. Different options suit many lifestyles, including vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free and nut-free.

ScriptPad: Tailored to small-practice physicians, this app can transform iPhones and iPads into digital prescription pads. The software gives doctors an alternative to writing prescriptions on paper, and the company describes digital prescriptions as fast and safe. ScriptPad's e-Prescribing application was certified for prescription routing and refill functionality, and in early 2011, ScriptPad started enrolling physicians in a private beta.

Simple Energy: This startup works with utilities to promote energy efficiency and customer awareness. Simple Energy's Customer Engagement Platform aims to make saving energy social, fun and simple. The online platform helps people understand their energy use, scores them against their Facebook friends and rewards them with prizes. In addition, local startups Tendril, Simple Energy and Trada set up Cleanweb Hackathon 2012, an event focused on building eco-friendly apps.

StatsMix: This Web-based service offers a total stats fix. StatsMix can track and chart metrics and key performance indicators. Clients can share dashboards using email, private links, guest accounts and more. Services include monitoring social media.

Tagwhat: This mobile tour guide offers interactive stories, videos and photos for a customized, location-based multimedia experience. Users can choose interests ranging from art to food to nature. Information comes from tourism organizations, media agencies, universities and groups like the World Freerunning Parkour Federation. Users can also publish their own stories relating to special locales and share digital postcards through Facebook or email.

Tendril: With its cloud services focused on energy, Tendril helps utilities connect with their customers and involve them in initiatives for energy efficiency. The open, scalable Tendril Connect platform communicates energy-related information to consumers and lets them control smart household appliances and thermostats remotely. Tendril has teamed up with more than 400 device and app developers to enhance the consumer experience.

Trada: This marketplace offers crowdsourced online ad services -- with a no-hidden-fees transaction model. A community of certified experts manages advertisers' paid search campaigns. Clients like small businesses can turn over their advertising efforts for Google, Bing and Yahoo, saving time and taking advantage of Trada's expertise.

These 20 Boulder startups prove the power of creativity, collaboration and lots of late-night coding. Bookmark the innovators on this list to see if they go through an acquisition, go public or just go big.

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