To the hunt

When it comes to ways to improve hunting, Jay County residents seem to have no shortage of ideas.

For the second time in the four-year history of the Launch Jay! business pitching competition, a hunting-related business took the top prize as Matt Lingo’s won the competition for his Houndsman Advantage app during the competition Saturday evening at Jay County Junior-Senior High School.

“It was pretty exciting,” said Lingo. “There was a lot of work that went into it. To come away with something for the hard work is definitely worth it.

“The process of working through everything was pretty beneficial,” he added, mentioning business plans and financial breakdowns. “Winning definitely makes it that much better.”

Lingo took first prize and the $7,500 prize that went along with it for his app designed to help coon hunters keep score and thus adjust strategy during competitions. His win in the competition sponsored by Jay County Development Corporation and Jay County Chamber of Commerce follows CRC Manufacturing’s victory for its Trinity Tree Stand — it was designed to be safer, as well as easier to carry and assemble — two years ago.

Aaron and Katie Clark’s Grind & Grain took the $3,000 prize for second place while Chad Fifer and Fifer Services finished third for $2,000.

The audience choice award, with a $1,000 prize, went to Hatzell Drafting & Interior Design.

An avid coonhunter, Lingo’s idea came to him as a way to help himself and others during competitions.

He explained that during competitions, a judge keeps score on paper. The competitors, meanwhile are attempting to hold everyone’s score in their memory.

Because scores and standings can impact strategy, forgetting or miscalculating scores can be a problem.

“What I came up with was an app that each person in a cast can use to keep score, so they know what their score is and the other competitors on the cast,” said Lingo, a 1996 Jay County High School graduate who went on to earn his bachelor’s degree at Purdue University. “They know kind of where they stand and what their strategy might be.”

The prize money from Launch Jay! will be used to expand Houndsman Advantage into squirrel hunts and beagle trials. A long-term goal is to bring a Houndsman Advantage Hunt to Jay County to draw competitors from all over the country and thus boost the local economy.

Lingo developed the Houndsman Advantage app with Dynamic Business Solutions, a Portland business owned by Craig Frazee.

It has been live for a couple of months in both the App Store and Google Play and is currently free to use. Plans are to launch subscriptions soon, with Dynamic Business Solutions working on some final details to make that happen. (Lingo said he pushed to have the free version ready by Labor Day weekend, when there is a big coon hunting event in Richmond.)

“Working with them has been phenomenal,” he said, mentioning that Seth Scott has put a lot of time into the product. “They’ve taken my vision and ran with it and actually put some things in there that made it even better than I hand’t even thought of. Their partnership has been awesome.”

Lingo, who works as vice president of administration for FCC Adams in Berne, is the sole owner of the business, though it has become a family affair. His wife, Sarah, lends her artistic abilities, while his daughter, Lina, a senior at Jay County Junior-Senior High School, handles a lot of the social media and marketing. His youngest son, Drew, is his “top salesman,” handing out business cards with QR codes to potential customers.

The Clarks’ Grind and Grain business focuses on a couple of local creators. Aaron Clark makes homemade knives while his wife Katie creates crafts from leather.

Fifer Services is in the process of transforming the former Sheller-Globe south property on bridge street into a sawmill. Chad Fifer has expressed a long-term goal of building furniture at the location as well.

Lisa Hatzell of Hatzell Drafting & Interior Design is a custom home designer who recently opened a new storefront in Portland.