A company that strives to control the amount of salt used by water softeners won the inaugural Transcend Madison startup competition for University of Wisconsin students held March 10-11 at Union South.

Neil Klingensmith and Zach LaVallee comprised the team called Emonix, which won $7,500. Second-place Metrecycle won $5,000, and third-place Trumpet Toasties won $2,500.

“It feels encouraging to win first place,” LaVallee said. “(This will help us reach) our goal of outfitting commercial water softener companies.”

According to the competition website, the 30 entries were judged on the novelty of their idea, their prototype, their business model, their execution and their pitch.

Transcend Engineering, a UW-Madison student organization dedicated to driving student innovation, hosted the competition.