A few weeks ago, Collars flew to Dallas and competed in front of investors, judges, and a live studio audience at CodeLaunch USA 2026. We can't tell you how it ended. Not yet. But we can tell you everything else — and there's a lot worth telling.

What is CodeLaunch?

CodeLaunch is a startup accelerator competition that's been running since 2013. It tours across the US, Canada, and Latin America, pulling early-stage startups out of the pile and putting them through a real gauntlet: a 48-hour product hackathon, a live pitch competition, and a room full of angel investors and venture capitalists who are there specifically to find something worth betting on.

It doesn't take your equity. It doesn't charge you to apply. What it does is put you on a stage and make you earn it.

This year's US event — CodeLaunch USA 2026 — was the 26th competition in the program's history. 6 startups made it to the finals. Collars was one of them.

The other 5: Pollen Sense, Unibaio, Travel Spoken, Two Robots, and Drip Inventory.

Getting selected as a finalist meant going through a curation process that drew applications from across the country. The field narrows hard. Making the cut put Collars in a group of startups that CodeLaunch considered among the most technically viable and investor-ready in the nation for 2026.

The format was different this year — by design

CodeLaunch USA 2026 wasn't just another pitch night in a hotel ballroom. The organizers moved it into a high-production broadcast studio with a live audience, cameras, and a format built to feel like something you'd actually watch — because you will.

The event was filmed as a TV special. It drops August 19th.

That framing changed the energy in the room immediately. The pressure wasn't just about investors in the front row. It was about performing for an audience that would eventually be a lot bigger than the one sitting there that night. Every pitch, every moment on that stage, was being captured.

Hosting the event was Rajiv Nathan — better known as RajNation, the Startup Hypeman. If you've seen him work a room, you know what he brings. The energy was relentless, the pacing was sharp, and he made the whole thing feel electric from the first minute. A tech startup competition hosted like a live entertainment event is a different experience than most founders ever get, and it showed.

This is what CodeLaunch has been building toward. The "Made for TV" format is a deliberate swing at giving the startups on that stage something most accelerators can't offer: mass visibility. Not just in front of the 100 or 200 people in the room, but eventually in front of anyone who watches. For a young platform still building its user base, that kind of exposure matters.

Before the stage: 48 hours with Gemini said EDI

The pitch competition is the main event, but the work that happens before it is what makes CodeLaunch different from a demo day.

Every finalist is matched with a Professional Coder League team — a group of developers from one of Improving's software development offices. That team spends 48 hours, April 12th and 13th, building directly on your product. Real code. Real features. Shipped before you ever walk on stage.

Collars was paired with Gemini said EDI, captained by Tim Rayburn out of Improving Dallas.

In those 48 hours, the team built AI-powered features into the Collars platform. Specifically: tools to help workers build stronger profiles, systems to optimize the experience on both sides of the match, and smarter matching logic under the hood.

Collars was already built on the idea that hiring in the trades deserves better than a resume pile and a keyword filter. The platform connects blue-collar workers and employers through a matching model that prioritizes fit — the kind of relationship that actually leads to someone showing up and staying. What the hackathon team added was a layer of intelligence that makes that process faster and sharper for everyone involved.

Better profiles mean better data. Better data means better matches. Better matches mean less time wasted for workers trying to get hired and employers trying to fill a crew.

48 hours is a sprint. What Gemini said EDI delivered in that window was real, and it's in the app right now.

The pitch

On April 15th, Collars took the stage.

The studio format meant it wasn't just a room full of investors quietly watching. It was a production. Lights up, cameras rolling, audience in — and the clock running from the moment you started.

The pitch for Collars is one that doesn't require much embellishment. Blue-collar hiring is broken. Skilled workers can't find employers who are actually a good fit. Employers can't find workers who will stick. The platforms that exist weren't built for the trades — they were built for office jobs and retrofitted, badly. We've written about what that costs crews and timelines.

Collars was built from the ground up for this specific problem. Hiring in the trades, done right.

Standing in that studio and making that case to a room full of investors and a camera that's going to reach a lot more people on August 19th felt like exactly where the platform needed to be.

About the results

Here's the part we can't get into.

The outcome of the competition is part of the TV special. It livestreams August 19th, and CodeLaunch isn't spoiling it — neither are we. You'll see it when everyone else does.

What we will say: competing at this level, against 5 other startups that all earned their spots, in a format that's never been done before at CodeLaunch — that's not a routine week for a young company. Walking into that studio meant the platform was ready to be seen, ready to be judged, and ready to stand next to some of the most interesting startups in the country.

The result lands August 19th. Stay tuned.

What you can do right now

The features Gemini said EDI built are coming to the Collars app soon. Download now and you'll be among the first to experience them when they go live.

If you're a worker in the trades — construction, manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and more — download Collars and build your profile today. The AI tools that came out of Dallas will make that profile work harder for you. More complete, more visible, more likely to put you in front of an employer who's actually the right fit.

If you're an employer trying to hire for your crew, the same improvements are coming to your side too. Smarter matching means less noise and more of the right people showing up in your feed.

Download the app now and you'll be the first to experience what got built in that 48-hour sprint in Dallas. By the time the TV special drops August 19th, you'll already know what you're watching.

Download Collars. Then watch the special August 19th — and find out how it ended.

Download Collars — available now on the App Store and Google Play. Follow @collarsinc for updates on the TV special release date.

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