By Staff Report Wednesday, May 6th, 2026

By Stephen Ellison

Special to the Business Times

Cantaloupe AI, a recruiting platform that automates frontline hiring using voice interviews and delivers ranked recommendations to hiring managers, took home the grand prize of $155,000 at the ninth annual AngelCon at Rod & Hammer Rock in San Luis Obispo.

The April 30 conference, hosted by the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Small Business Development Center (SBDC), featured six startup companies delivering their pitches for a group of investors, and Cantaloupe AI came out on top with its mission to help managers in high-turnover industries save time and money in the hiring process 

Cantaloupe co-founder and CEO Rich Simmerman told the audience his company recently helped the popular fast food chain Wendy’s with its locations in Alabama and Florida, whose managers were “drowning in resumes.” Before Cantaloupe launched its pilot, the stores were seeing an average of 167% frontline turnover. Once the pilot launched, the rate dropped to 85%, according to Simmerman.

“We gave their managers 94 hours back from reading resumes, and we saved them $48,000 in verified savings, all in just two months with one workflow,” Simmerman said during his pitch. “We don’t just track applicants. We listen to them and learn from them with each and every conversation and get the right people in the right roles quicker than ever.”

Cantaloupe’s 24/7 voice recruiter technology, called Clio, is capable of predicting turnover and reducing it by up to 50%, Simmerman said. Once a candidate applies for a job, Cantaloupe launches an immediate “dynamic” 3- to 5-minute interview, then the applicant is ranked according to compatibility and turnover risk. Those rankings then form a short list that is sent to a manager’s inbox, saving several hours of time that the manager would typically spend screening applicants.

Startup consultant Brendon Keiser, one of the AngelCon voting investors, told the Business Times the decision was tough because all six teams had unique solutions to addressing consumers’ unmet needs. 

“From my perspective, Cantaloupe won due to demonstrating proof of concept and traction in the market,” Keiser said in an email. “Cantaloupe showed real-world validation through a Wendy’s franchise pilot that generated meaningful data. In addition, they demonstrated early revenue and customer demand. The combination of proof and momentum set them apart.”

Simmerman said the funding will help Cantaloupe AI in the go-to-market as it targets the enterprise quick-service restaurant space, starting with the first 120 operators already signed. That SOM, or serviceable obtainable market, translates to $3.6 million in revenue by year three, with a TAM, or total addressable market, of 220,000 quick service restaurants across the U.S. that would translate to $2.9 billion in revenue, according to Simmerman’s presentation.

Along with Simmerman, Cantaloupe’s executive team consists of co-founder and COO Lane Degenhardt and co-founder and CTO Josh Anderson. All three founders have had experience in a high-turnover industry, Simmerman said.

“My very first job was at a beloved neighborhood coffee shop, and I became the hiring manager of that shop,” he recalled to the crowd. “I made one bad hire – I’ll never forget that first one. Then I made five, then 10, then 15, and last year, that coffee shop closed. … Every single person that worked there lost their job, and I kept obsessively thinking there has to be a better way.”

Indeed, when Cantaloupe brings on a new customer, Simmerman said, it instantly gets access to all of that business’s historical hiring data: who they hired, why they hired them, how long the employee stayed and why they left. That enables Cantaloupe to calibrate its AI experience and understand what makes the best applicant for the role. 

“In fact, that training data is what allows Cantaloupe to be the leading expert on what makes a really good line cook at a Wendy’s in Mississippi, or the best barista at a coffee shop here in SLO,” Simmerman continued. “These types of turnover insights didn’t exist when we started Cantaloupe, so we had to build them, and this is what makes us hard to live without for our customers.” 

Meanwhile, AngelCon’s Audience Choice Award, which totaled $2,975 at the time it was announced, went to Ecoplasticity, a seaweed-based coating designed as a compostable alternative to plastic take-out containers.  

The other four AngelCon finalists included Everest Medical Solutions, developing a medical device to address shoulder dystocia in newborns; Hikari Medical Technologies, creating safer drug delivery and dosing of potent therapeutics; SafePlate Technologies, developing a testing device for food manufacturing facilities to improve food safety; and Vulcan BioWorks, developing a digital platform to accelerate and streamline drug manufacturing.

All six of the startups endured a months-long process to get to the AngelCon stage, with 12 semifinalists chosen from a large pool of applicants. From there, the startups go through a pitch prep bootcamp to polish their skills in front of investors, who then pare down the field to six finalists.

The 16 investors themselves went through a lengthy preparation starting in September. Over the course of 8 to 9 months, they received training in areas such as investment thesis and pitch review; bridge financing; financial planning; and cap tables and term sheets. Even with all the prep work, it didn’t make the decision on event night any easier, Keiser told the Business Times.

“It was very close – each team had a compelling approach to solving real customer problems,” he said. “What’s exciting is that many of these companies are approaching key near-term milestones that will significantly de-risk their businesses. I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more from them in the near future.”

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