'Game Changers' Celebrated In Danville, Tri-Valley

News release from Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group:

DANVILLE, CA —The Tri-Valley is still buzzing after Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group's annual #GameChangers Awards ceremony. A sold-out crowd celebrated 11 game-changing innovators including Danville companies Crosschq and BoxMedia who were honored for their local groundbreaking work, providing global solutions.

Crosschq, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider uses predictive data to remove bias, revolutionizing the hiring process for clients like Snowflake, Hubspot, and Glassdoor. Founded in Danville in 2018 by Michael Fitzsimmons and Peter Goettner, the company has exploded in recent years, having raised $36M in a recent funding round and quadrupling its office space in Danville. Says Co-Founder and CEO Michael Fitzsimmons “We are very proud to be in Danville. I remember the journey of selecting our Danville location. I stumbled upon this great office building called Prospector’s Square located on Prospect Avenue and I knew it was the one. All of us who are entrepreneurs are prospecting in our own ways.``

Another Danville player is BoxMedia, an innovative workforce training tool using scientific data and cinematic storytelling to train and upskill talent. The company is on track to reach its ambitious goal of helping 1 Billion people become more employable by 2030.

“As a mother of two and a Danville resident for nearly 40 years, having my business as part of such a great town and community means a lot to me. All of us here are connected by a maximum of 6 degrees of separation,” says BoxMedia Co-Founder and COO, Michelle Czarnik. “You meet someone whose brother happens to be your doctor and his daughter does Jujitsu with your business partner, and so on. It truly is a bubble. “

Founders, entrepreneurs, mentors, start-ups, funders, and civic leaders gathered at Goal Line Productions in Pleasanton to celebrate the Tri-Valley’s thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and the dynamic personalities of company founders leading the work.

In 2020 alone, the Tri-Valley received approximately $470M in venture capital funding for local companies, according to the East Bay Economic Development Alliance’s East Bay Forward report. “This community of entrepreneurs and thought-leaders has transformed how and where we work. The personal stories these founders share about why they get up every morning to solve complex problems clearly illuminates why every one of these honorees is a world-class game-changer,” says CEO of ITV, Lynn Wallace Naylor.

The 2022 Tri-Valley #GameChangers Award recipients include ACTON, AEye, BoxMedia, Crosschq, IrisVision, Monarch Tractor, Raydiant Oximetry, Striking Distance Studios, Tekion, Vagaro, and the Advanced Manufacturing Lab at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

This news release was produced by Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group. The views expressed here are the author's own.The views expressed here are the author's own.