{"id":21121,"date":"2016-05-03T17:18:19","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T21:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=21121"},"modified":"2020-04-03T17:56:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:56:49","slug":"fort-boards-wins-big-microsoft-small-business-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/fort-boards-wins-big-microsoft-small-business-contest","title":{"rendered":"Fort Boards wins big in Microsoft Small Business Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the biggest competition Fort Boards founder August Graube has ever entered, he just took home first place and a handsome check for $20,000.<\/p>\n

The first thing Graube did? Call his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could tell he was very proud, but his first response was, \u2018Don\u2019t let it go to your head,\u2019\u201d Graube says. \u201cAlways good advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graube chuckles that when he and teammate Neal Mizushima submitted their video to enter the Microsoft Small Business Contest<\/a>, it was a little \u201cstiff.\u201d And he says his reaction to the phone call from Microsoft notifying them about the award probably sounded just as awkward.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I was expecting a call from Microsoft and expecting good news, I still didn\u2019t know how to react when the call came through,\u201d says Graube, a WeWork South Lake Union<\/a> member. \u201cI think I was a little shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graube got the news earlier this week. He says the money will go towards producing new products for Fort Boards, a snap-together toy designed to foster children\u2019s creativity. The goal is to launch nine different variations of Fort Boards before the holidays. Currently there are five.<\/p>\n

The win\u00a0has been great publicity for Fort Boards, which has heard from representatives for the reality\u00a0show Shark Tank<\/em> and an LA-based television production company called Good Clean Fun.<\/p>\n

The competition gave Graube and Mizushima a chance to reach out to the WeWork community, which has been helping to spread the word about the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWeWork has helped in ways that we could have never anticipated,\u201d Mizushima says. He mentions that when another WeWork member found out Fort Boards had launched a PR campaign, he gave them some great contacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most natural business networking experience that I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d says Mizushima, \u201cand it\u2019s the type of experience that I don\u2019t think you\u2019d find anywhere else but WeWork.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the biggest competition Fort Boards founder August Graube has ever entered, he just took home first place and a handsome check for $20,000. The first thing Graube did? Call his father. \u201cI could tell he was very proud, but his first response was, \u2018Don\u2019t let it go to your head,\u2019\u201d Graube says. \u201cAlways good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":917,"featured_media":21122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43903,43911],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-member-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFort Boards wins big in Microsoft Small Business Contest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Competing against other smart startups, the Seattle-based toy company takes home first place and a handsome check for $20,000.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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