Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWire) -- 05/30/2013 --Friend Trusted Inc., a company that helps people navigate the often murky waters of home improvement services, has just announced that its home improvement app took the top prize at a recent competition, held on May 18 in San Jose, Calif. The event, which was designed to honor a startup of the month, was facilitated by the Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs and Startups group, and was sponsored by HanHai of Silicon Valley.

A panel of five judges were in charge of the proceedings, and over 150 people were in attendance. Ten companies that are currently in various stages of development competed for the honor of “Startup of the Month.”

During the competition, each company was allowed five minutes to pitch their product, followed by five minutes of question and answer time. Darwin Widjaja and Brenton Marrelli, the founders of Friend Trusted, impressed the crowd with their presentation about their home improvement and home service app; both the crowd and the judges seemed to be especially interested in the app and what it can do. Both Darwin and Brenton were thrilled when they realized that their question and answer session was going so well, the crowd requested that event organizers extend their time to reply to more inquiries.

After the 10 companies finished their presentations and the judges retired to deliberate and choose the best startup, Friend Trusted was named the hands-down winner.

“The judges and crowd alike were truly impressed with our presentation that communicated the massive opportunity that is the home improvement market and our unique business model that solves multiple pain points in the market,” Darwin said.

“We were able to demonstrate how our app is revolutionizing the way homeowners can easily obtain multiple quotes for their home service needs, and that top quality service pros are signing onto to concept in record numbers,” Brenton added.

The startup-savvy crowd also seemed to appreciate how quickly Friend Trusted has grown in the short time since it went live. The founders of the company explained to the audience that in the four short months they have been open, they have seen their gross sales increase ten times, their users grow by seven times, and the number of vendors increase eight-fold—all while producing and managing 600 viable and vetted home improvement projects. In addition, the company provided one of the most important metrics in the mobile space: 151 iOS iPhone reviews that average five stars in the app store. To put this in perspective, 1.3 billion dollar market cap Angie’s list, whose app debuted in 2010, has 449 app store reviews that average two and half stars.

About Friend Trusted Inc.
Silicon Valley based Friend Trusted Inc. was founded in 2013 to make it extremely easy to obtain home improvement services quickly and efficiently. The service offers users a free personal assistant that guides people through the home improvement maze from project inception to completion: all while finding them the best provider at the best price with the most convenient delivery method possible, their smartphone. For more information, please visit http://www.friendtrusted.com