John Repko receives a plaque recognizing him as a runner-up of the 2020-2021 IDEA Competition from Mic McCrory, Northwest Minnesota Foundation Program Specialist – SBDC and IDEA Competition.
The IDEA Competition has concluded its 2020-2021 season by naming and awarding one overall winner and four runners-up in the annual competition that aims to support northwest Minnesota entrepreneurs in turning their great ideas into great businesses.
For his concept of Rvizion, a collaborative web search product that empowers users with knowledge to build expertise, Repko was named the 2021 Minnesota Cup semifinalist for Northwest Minnesota.
Minnesota Cup is a public-private partnership that supports Minnesota entrepreneurs through an annual competition that connects them with education, mentorship, and support to launch and accelerate their new ventures. With the semifinalist award, Repko, of Bemidji, will have the option of competing in one of the nine divisions for the chance of more than $400,000 in cash prizes while accelerating his businesses plan..
The idea that became Rvizion germinated in 2015 when Repko rescued an old English setter who was diagnosed with advanced cancer. He was told to take her home until she died.
“That’s no way to live,” he said, “so I Googled it and …. invented a treatment therapy for her and saved her. Rvizion was created to build a discovery process that’s available to everyone.”
Repko, who has 30 years’ experience in information technology, said Rvizion is based on the belief that we are all capable of building the knowledge necessary to confront life’s greatest questions and persevere through life’s greatest challenges.
“If you get bad news from your doctor or you rescue a poor old English setter who needs help, or there’s any of the life questions that you don’t know in advance, go to Rvizion – it will help you build knowledge in the area you need and maybe find solutions you didn’t think were out there,” he said.