North Seattle inventor, August Graube has been selected as the grand prize winner for Microsoft’s Small Business Contest and will be awarded $20,000 to go towards his business, Fort Boards, which makes large-scale construction toys for children.

Fort Boards was one of ten businesses selected from hundreds from around the U.S. in the second year of this annual contest. After the panel selected the ten finalists, the winner was decided by a public vote and the final standings were announced last Tuesday.

“It’s pretty exciting. I’m still trying to wrap my head around winning,” said Graube.

The top four businesses included an Ohio company making therapeutic bone broths, a Bothell business that connects customers with undiscovered artists, a Kansas City vintage décor store, and Fort Boards.

For this online voting contest the finalists all raced out to garner support across a variety of social platforms. Graube had already established a strong social media-marketing base since launching Fort Boards last summer. However, Graube said that some companies were way ahead of him, especially at the start.

“We found out on my birthday I was one of the candidates, and we had a late start with only two percent of the votes. We then did everything we could to activate our network and reached out to everyone we’ve ever come across. By the end of the next day, we had taken the lead.”

Fort Boards had a mere 350 Facebook followers at the start compared to one finalist that had 40,000. According to Graube one Kansas City finalist even had the support from the Mayor of Kansas City on Twitter. Still, Graube kept going even when his lead diminished to six percent as the voting end approached.

Graube said that his social media presence and his engaging product made up for a lackluster entry video. He learned about the contest a few days before the deadline and happened to already have his video equipment (digital camera and a tripod) set up for a different marketing venture.

“I was feeling super awkward about it and put it together one line at a time.”

Graube said he added stop-motion video he had already prepared during his launch from 2015.

The video comes together to introduce and show how Fort Boards can be used to build a multitude of forts in virtually any environment, as demonstrated by Graube’s cartoon-like “Fort Forman.” View the video here https://youtu.be/iU7uh2y7S1k.

August Graube in a castle made with Fort Boards.

So, what’s Graube’s next move now that his company has won $20,000?

At the moment Fort Boards has one fulltime employee and an “army” of consultants developing everything from the branding at FortBoards.com to the product designs to distribution logistics for five Fort Boards products. Graube said he’s developing two more product lines to complement Fort Boards and hopes to have them ready for market by Christmas.

“It’s an incredibly validating feeling after spending three years of my life on something I thought would only take a few months. After being pushed out of the nest, Fort Boards is finally flying!”

Graube first formulated Fort Boards while living in Ballard just a few blocks from Salmon Bay Elementary. He said that his winning the contest is mostly a reflection of the support he has received from his friendships and professional relationships.

“We just reached out to people and humbly asked if they could help. And everyone responded really well. Now I’m having a really hard time keeping tack of all the people I need to thank. … It’s a very humbling experience.”

For more information visit FortBoards.com.