HispanicBusiness

Two executives of a Madison start-up parlayed their company's technology into a new use to win the grand prize and a total of $70,000 at a San Francisco technology contest this week.

Claus Moberg and Matt Luedke teamed up with three other participants at the Disrupt SF Hackathon 2012 to best 146 other teams and win $5,000.

The technology at the heart of their entry, which they call livebolt, was a virtual rewards system where retailers use a small aluminum block to "stamp" people's smartphones. The livebolt entry used the aluminum stamp to create a lock that can be attached to any door with Velcro and opened with a smartphone.

Livebolt also won a $65,000 award from Nokia for being the most innovative mobile product.

"San Francisco is the tech capital of the world, so we thought two guys from the Midwest would have no chance," said Moberg, founder and chief executive officer of SnowShoeFood Inc. in Madison.

Moberg and Luedke were in San Francisco this week to exhibit their company's product at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

As for all of the offers to move to California, Moberg says he's got a standard answer.

"We have a great team in Madison, our company has been doing very well there, we have huge support from the Madison tech community and we're very happy where we are," he said.