$1.1 Million Awarded To 18 Startups In MassChallenge Awards

MassChallenge, the largest accelerator program in the world, celebrated their awards dinner for their most recent session in Boston Tuesday night. The dignitaries, entrepreneurs, celebrities and investors that filled the Boston Convention and Exhibit Center were there to see the best of the best of startup innovation coming out of the program that’s gone on to produce hundreds of millions in follow on funding and exits.

The 18 startups that received cash awards were narrowed down from a field of over 1200 applicants and then a pool of 26 finalists.

The four startups that won the diamond award of $100,000 each were:

Global Research & Innovation Technology

LiquiGlide

Rally Point

Strong Arm Technologies.

12 gold winners took home $50,000 cash prizes each and they were:

Bounce Imaging

Coach Up

Guided Surgery Solutions

Lab Automate Technologies

Ministry Of Supply

Nordic Technology Group

BuysideFX

Dynamo Micropower

Integral Research

Lovin Spoonfuls

NBA Math Hoops

Recovers.org

Ten startups were selected to stay on with free office space until next years class arrives in May.

In addition to those prizes directly from MassChallenge and it’s supporters, there were several community awards given out as well. Lovin Spoonfuls and NBA Math Hoops were the recipients of the $30,000 John W. Henry foundation prize for social impact.

Global Research Innovation won an additional $15,000 Perkin’s School For The Blind Assistive Technology Prize. PlenOptika won $10,000 as part of the same prize.

Rainbank and Bounce Imaging were recipients of a $15,000 prize from VenCorps for the greatest potential to positively impact New York City.

125 of the startups selected from the original 1237 applicants were part of the four month accelerator program. A round of judging narrowed those 125 startups down to the 26 that were competing Tuesday evening.

Linkage:

Source: Boston Herald

Check out MassChallenge Here

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Purdue Startup: FoundOps Wins Startup Bowl At Indy Powder Keg Conference

photo: TechCocktail

Last week downtown Indianapolis and Lucas Oil Field (home to this years Super Bowl) played host to the first Powder Keg conference.

Powder Keg piggybacked off Connections 12, ExactTarget’s annual conference for their digital marketers.

The signature event for this year’s Powder Keg conference was the first ever Startup Bowl. The Startup Bowl pitted 12 regional startups against each other in a traditional pitch contest. To put a very cool spin on it, conference organizer Matt Hunckler, held the Startup Bowl at Lucas Oil Field.

Derek Pacque and his startup CoatChex was among one of the 12 contestants. Pacque is somewhat of an Indy startup celebrity. He turned down a $200,000 investment from Mark Cuban in the first episode of Shark Tank Season 4.

Pacque’s mini celeb status wasn’t enough to thwart a duo of entrepreneurs from Purdue though. It was their startup, FindOPS, which took home a prize package worth $15,000.

FoundOPS founders, Jon Perl and Oren Shatken admit that their startup isn’t the sexiest. FoundOPS is a useful mobile app that offers route optimization, data collection and GPS tracking.

FoundOPS is in the hot enterprise space, targeting field services. Companies with field workers will take advantage of the many features found in FieldOPS mobile app.

What were the judges looking for?

“What’s their go-to-market strategy? Have they identified their market correctly? Where do they fit, versus their competition?” Judge Christopher Day, Managing Principal at the Nabudar Group told the Indianapolis Business Journal.

FoundOPS had all the components the judges pool were looking for. Startup America CEO and Founding CTO of Priceline.com, announced the winning team at the end of the event.

Linkage:

Source: IndyStar

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Photo: TechCocktail

37 Startups, So Far, Vying To Compete In Invest Maryland Startup Competition

Maryland Startups, InvestMaryland Challenge,startup competition,startup,startups,startup newsLike most state governments Maryland is taking startups seriously. The state’s economic development arm is doing whatever it can to support local startups in the state and attract new startups to come to the state to develop. One of the biggest initiatives to come out of Annapolis is the Invest Maryland Challenge, startup competition.

The challenge opened up to applicants last month and the application process continues through December 13, 2012.

The basic requirements is that your startup has less than 25 employees and less than $1 million dollars in annual revenue. The startups also have to be in the tech or life sciences industry.

Applicants are competing for $300,000 in grant money and business services. Startups must either already be based in Maryland or plan to relocate to Maryland to grow. Also, all startups must be legal entities and in good standing in the states where they are based.

While the Baltimore Sun seems to be concerned with the fine print, it’s pretty standard for economic development contests where grant money and relocation is involved. So far all of the 37 startups that have applied are either based in Maryland or the immediate surrounding areas (Northern Virginia and DC). Take a look at the list of the startups that have applied so far:

1.            Direct Dimensions Inc, Owings Mills, MD

2.            MyoTherapeutics , Silver Spring, MD

3.            Handteq, LLC, Baltimore

4.            Parking Panda , Baltimore, MD

5.            ClickMedix, LLC , Rockville, MD

6.            Tots2Tweens, Frederick, MD

7.            SIALUU, Baltimore MD

8.            KneeBouncers.com , Sykesville, MD

9.            Omic Biosystems, Inc., Rockville, MD

10.          Closing the Gap, Lanham, MD

11.          Brain Biosciences, Inc., Bethesda, MD

12.          StudyHall, Washington DC

13.          Firejack, Inc. , Columbia, MD

14.          WeLearn Educational Software, Baltimore, MD

15.          B’more Organic, Baltimore, MD

16.          Family Business, Rockville, MD

17.          Clear Guide Medical, Baltimore, MD

18.          Shreis Scalene Sciences, Gaithersburg, MD

19.          Stupil, Laytonsville, MD

20.          Rafagen, Inc., Rockville, MD

21.          FiberCell Systems Inc., Frederick, MD

22.          ConverGene, LLC,  Gaithersburg, MD

23.          Printless Plans, Baltimore, MD

24.          Juxtopia, Baltimore, MD

25.          Solar System Express, Baltimore, MD

26.          Internet Security Advisors Group, Severna Park, MD

27.          TDP Biotherapeutics, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD

28.          Green Gap Solutions, Rockville, MD

29.          Athena Energy Corp, Bowie, MD

30.          Subject7, Potomac, MD

31.          Paniagua’s Enterprises Inc. , Baltimore, MD

32.          NuSomnea, LLC, Severna Park, MD

33.          DioGenix , Rockville, MD

34.          zeroK NanoTech, Montgomery Village, MD

35.          Car Fare Compare Inc. , Crownsville, MD

36.          Fiteeza, Fairfax, VA

37.          Differential Dynamics Corporation, Owings Mills, MD

The contest is also open to startups outside of Maryland who are willing to relocate.

Linkage:

Apply here today

Source: Baltimore Sun

Here’s something fun.

Arizona State Startup G3Box, Finalist In Dyson Competition

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An Arizona State University startup in the colleges Edison student entrepreneur initiative, has been selected as a finalist in the global James Dyson Awards Competition.

The startup, called G3Box, has done something amazing for healthcare in rural areas. G3Box is converting freight shipping containers into small medical clinics. G3Box provides engineering design and manufacturing towards the conversion of steel shipping containers into durable, semi-mobile, stand-alone facilities that are ideal for remote environments.

“G3Box is honored to have been selected as one of the 10 U.S. finalists in the Dyson awards. From the start, G3Box has been about solving problems specifically in healthcare provision,” said Susanna Young, Co-founder and CEO of G3Box. “The Dyson awards are, at the core, about solving problems with new and creative ideas. We do that with a commitment to integrity, humility, and collaboration.”

Of course the Dyson Awards competition is held annually by Jes Dyson’s charitable trust. Dyson being the inventor and founder of the vacuum cleaner company with his same name.

The James Dyson Award is open to product design, industrial design and engineering university-level students or recent graduates who have studied in countries including the USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the UK. The James Dyson Award supports students not only with monetary prizes, but also by promoting and recognizing good quality entries. The US winner will be announced later this year.

Linkage:

Find out more about G3box Here

Find out more about the James Dyson Award here

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Entries Now Open For Business Excellence Awards 2013 Best Startup Company

The Business Excellence Awards is a global event put on by ActionCOACH the world’s largest business coaching and executive coaching firm in the world with offices in over 40 countries.

The next Business Excellence Awards ceremonies begin January 25th and 26th 2013 in Las Vegas. They continue in Europe on February 7th and 8th 2013 and finish in Asia February 22 and 23rd 2013. Each region will present a “Best Startup” award for companies that have had the best results since beginning no later than January 1, 2011.

In addition to Best Startup, other award categories include:

 

Best Overall Company
Best Turnaround Company
Most Innovative Company
Fastest Growing Company
Best Customer Service Results
Young Entrepreneur (35 or younger)
Entrepreneur of the Year
Best Retailer
Best Service Based
Best Manufacturer/Wholesaler
Most Community Impact

Source88 in St.Petersburg Florida was the 2011 Best Startup Winner. That ceremony and forum event were held in Miami Florida.

Linkage:

If your startup is ready you can check out the awards and enter here

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Texas Startup Competition Is Back Fort Worth Business Assistance Center Annonuces

A popular Forth Worth area business plan competition is back for it’s second year. The Fort Worth Business Assistance Center announced today that founding sponsors Capital One Bank, The Alternative Board and Sales Mastery Consultants (Sandler Training) have teamed up to put on the contest which has over $40,000 in cash and business services prizes.

The competition is open to all BAC clients and Tarrant County businesses and startups. After the initial application process (going on now through September 19th), 25 teams will be selected as the competitors in the event. These 25 companies will receive 8 hours in professional training, valued at $1,000. this includes two 3-hour training sessions with valuable information from Accion (Cash Flow), Texas Christian University’s Center for Professional Communication (Effective Presentations), Whitley Penn (The Importance of Financials), and a panel discussion from business leaders on effective marketing and sales. The preliminary round will also include a minimum of two hours of one-on-one business counseling with counselors from the BAC and competition partners the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for Enterprise Excellence, SCORE of Fort Worth, and Tarrant SBDC.

After the preliminary round the three strongest business plans will be selected as finalists and will advance to the final round. The final competition will be combines with an awards ceremony which will be held November 15th at the Texas Christian University.

The winners of the 2011 competition were Ikerd Consulting, Positive Influences and Cleves Research and their Cluso product.

If you’re in the Fort Worth area (Tarrant County) now’s the time to apply at the link below.

Linkage:

Apply here

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Pitney Bowes Hosting Startup Competition In Connecticut

Pitney Bowes, the Connecticut based mailroom and communications giant, recently announced an entrepreneurial and startup competition. The $5.8 billion dollar company is hoping to leverage their technology and forward thinking entrepreneurs to create new startups in three main areas of the company’s business:

Location Intelligence 

Location Intelligence is a rapidly expanding field, thanks to advances in mobile technologies, sensors, data quality and analytics. Pitney Bowes Software is a leader in the geospatial industry, with over 25 years experience and global presence. We are offering unprecedented access to our technology platforms and data sets to companies that can integrate them into new products and services.
We see the greatest opportunities in:

  • Location Based Services
  • Social, Local and Mobile
  • Location based marketing and targeting of customers
  • Context Aware Computing

Secure Evidencing Platform

Lower costs of electronics are making it possible to make and deploy a variety of sensors and detection devices that didn’t exist before. Security tends to be an afterthought. Yet, security is needed to ensure the veracity/validity of the data. Pitney Bowes offers superior technology to secure this data. We are looking to work with entrepreneurs and startups to leverage our deep expertise and advanced technology in new and exciting ways. 

Connect+ 

With the introduction of the Connect+ Series, Pitney Bowes not only launched the world’s first mailing machine with a web based architecture, we also launched the first full color mailing system, which now enables clients to use the mail piece as a marketing tool to engage their customers and prospects, adding messaging, logos, and QR codes to the face of the envelope. In the last year, Connect+ mailing systems have processed over 1 billion mail pieces.
That number will exceed 7 billion in the next 5 years.

  • How would your business use Connect + to increase the value of the mail piece for each recipient?
  • How could we leverage the capability of color printing on the envelope to provide new opportunities for Connect+ mailers and their customers?
  • What types of compelling browser-based mailing or shipping applications could be developed? 

 

The prize package for the winners includes; One year of free utilization of office space and internet access at the Pitney Bowes WHQ in Stamford Connecticut; Access to Pitney Bowes platforms and capabilities relevant to the three competition areas along with Pitney Bowes’ technical and business expertise; An introduction and access to the Stamford Innovation Center and mentoring.

Interested entrepreneurs and startups can apply through September 7, 2012 at this link. Winners will be chosen and notified in November and will begin moving into the Pitney Bowes WHQ (World Head Quarters) shortly there after.

Linkage:

Check out the complete details of the Pitney Bowes Entrepreneurial Competition here

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Chicago Startup: Safe Snips Wins TechWeek Launch Competition

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Monday at Chicago TechWeek was Startup City day. 34 Startups from Chicago and everywhere else participated in an expo day and Launch competition.

The competition included $100,000 I’m cash and business services for the winning companies. The prize package included six months free space from Catapult, services from Microsoft, Motorola Xyboard tablets from Verizon Wirless, a year supply of Diet Coke, $5,000 dollars in cash and more.

The finalists in the contest were narrowed down by their startup overall. The panel of judge combed the exhibit floor early on in the day and then selected four finalists. A fifth finalist came from popular vote by attendees. Attendees of the Startup City expo were given a card when they went in and told to put their card in the jar of the startup they liked the best. We thought it was a good system but apparently flawed in talking with over 50 attendees none of them had even seen the booth for Biz Inject the startup that had supposedly won the popular vote. Even worse during the judges Q&A the founder had trouble conceptualizing his concept in pitch form….

The other four startups selected were great by our standards. They were all fresh innovative ideas, with great pitches. The other four finalists were GDine, Mouse House, SafeSnips and Pretty Quick.

GDine is revolutionizing the way people dine in groups. Using GDines platform users can enjoy similar benefits to “Restaurant Week” year round. Groups can choose menus from participating restaurants, split the check and pay in advance. GDine has already received $650,000 in funding, and released last March, The service is already available in Chicago and Ne York.

The company founded said that with only 30 restaurants on board in New York as well as the fact that they’ve only been in New York a couple months, New York is pacing to pass Chicago,

Mouse House I love it when I learn cool totally off the wall things. With Mouse House I did just that. This startup has revolutionized the way Mice ponds are tracked and kept up with in labs,

Traditionally mice are kept in groups in cages with index cards on the front of the cage and data updated by hand. Mouse House puts the information in an iPad app. This new app greatly cuts down on the time of the administration of keeping up with the mice and frees scientists up to spend more time experimenting.

Pretty Quick

this startup was founded by a former employee of also Loreal who discovered the problem she was solving when a plane she was to take from France back to the states was delayed 2 hours. As she said in her pitch, she had two hours to be by herself and do something for herself.

She wanted to get her nails done and find somewhere in the airport or close by to do that, and book an appointment on short notice.

Now here new startup makes it extremely easy to find salons and book appointments with a variety of options. Again a really great idea.

SafeSnips would fall into the medical devices category. The team behind SafeSnips has developed a technology that will be implemented onto surgical cutting instruments. Using near infra red technology SafeSnips will make cutting safer and less likely to accidentally cut arteries which can be fatal.

SafeSnips had one of the most innovative ideas. Since they are incorporating their technology into existing medical devices they don’t expect FDA approval to take very long.

On top of their innovative technology they had a great and enthusiastic pitch. During the Q&A session during the finals the pitchman for SafeSnips didn’t miss a beat while answering the questions. Obviously these factors played into SafeSnips being the winner of the TechWeek launch competition.

Linkage:

Find out more about SafeSnips here at their website

Here’s more our our Chicago TechWeek Coverage Here

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Detroit Accelerator: TechTown Hosting Startup Soup August 3rd

TechTown,Wayne State University,Detroit startup,Detroit accelerator,accelerator,startup,startups,pitch contest,startup soupThe creativity in pitch events gets better and better. We’ve all heard of the Startup Bus to Austin’s South by Southwest Festival. Several cities have had Startup Trains, where people work on startups on a day long train ride, we’ve even heard of a Startup Beach House (that was unfortunately cancelled).

Now, Wayne University’s TechTown Accelerator is hosting Startup Soup.

The event is open to the public and will be held on August 3rd. Startups that want to pitch must register at the link below before July 31, 2012.

The pitches will be five minutes and there doesn’t seem to be a theme for the pitch contest. There is a nice $1500 cash prize along with 5 free TechTown seminar passes for the winner. The winner will be chosen by a panel of local tech community judges.

The finalists will all receive complimentary tickets to 2 future TechTown events.  The events at TechTown are all meant for startup enrichment and offer valuable business resources and continuing education.

After the pitches and the winners are selected there will be an evening of networking, and you guessed it… soup.

The event starts at 5:30pm August 3rd at TechTown 2051 Rosa Parks Boulevard in Detroit.

Linkage:

To register to pitch click this link

Source: CBS Detroit

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Live Broadcast From Silicon Beach Fest Of Demo Day And More

 

Tomorrow at 2pm PST we’ll be broadcasting live from SBF Demo Day presented by StartEngine. As well as broadcasting from other events live throughout the whole event that starts tomorrow. Panels ranging from Meet The Accelerators to  How To Hire A Developer. Into coding and actually products, don’t worry as StartEngine has you covered with a full 48 hours Hackathon going on throughout the event. Quick hint, teams from Disney are among those who’ll be showing up to show us what they can do.

Read More…

TechStars Announces Two Scholarships To Fall DEMO Event In October

If you’re a currently unfunded startup or student run startup there are 20 spots available for the DEMO scholarship (read free) program. DEMO is one of the most lucrative pitch events held in Silicon Valley and startups from “everywhere else” always attend.

During the most recent session, this past spring, we saw Rawporter pitch. Rawporter is a citizen journalism startup based in Charlotte NC. They were one of the scholarship recipients at the last event. We talked with co-founder Kevin Davis after DEMO who provided us with this interview.

Smurks, a Chicago startup also pitched at Demo and we ran this story about the startup that puts the “heart” in the machine. Smurks has found a way to offer a quantified analysis of peoples feelings. Really impressive stuff, check it out here.

TechStars, the nationwide “everywhere else” incubation program has announced that they have two scholarship spots available for the fall DEMO session October 1-3 in Silicon Valley.

The first recipient will be an unfunded TechStars company. The second spot will be for a student run TechStars company.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, you should definitely consider pitching for a spot here.

Source: VentureBeat

Cincinnati’s The Brandery Announces 2012 Startup Class, And It Starts Young

Earlier we reported on Louisville Kentucky startup Impulcity and the fact that they would be headed up to Cincinnati for this years class at the Brandery. The Brandery is a marketing focused Cincinnati incubator. All of the companies selected to participate in the 2012 session receive $20,000 in seed capital and will participate in a 14 week program that includes free office space, mentoring, working with some of the top marketing and advertising people in the country and access to venture capitalists.

To date the Brandery has graduated 14 startups since 2010. This year’s class is 11 startups deep and the ages of these entrepreneurs range from 17 years old to 45. It’s a mix of Cincinnati based startups, to startups from across the US. However the Brandery received applications from over 40 different countries and received twice as many applications as the previous two years combined.

Enterchange reports that Rujul Zaparde is the youngest in the class at 17. His co-founders in their New Jersey based startup FlazCar are Shri Ganeshram and Kevin Petrovic, both of whom are just 18 themselves.  Details were stealthily as to what they would be working on however Laura Baverman of Enterchange reports that these three high school buddies started a non profit that’s built 50 wells in India serving 80,000 residents. One word: Impressive.

At 45, Vinay Murthy is the oldest member of the class. Murthy left a position at Google where he helped develop Adsense, Adwords and also worked on YouTube among other things. His startup, with co-founder Vikram Venkataraghavan is called 360pager, and again there’s word on exactly what they are doing.

Here’s the full list of startups in this years class as reported by Enterchange at Cincinnati.com:

Brooklyn, NY: Off Track Planet, Freddie Pikovsky, 29, and Anna Starostinetskaya, 29.

Chicago: Ontract, Julian Miller, 31, and Matt Duch, 26.

Cincinnati: Modulus, Charlie Key, 28, Brandon Cannaday, 28, and Richard Key, 24, (moving back home from Tucson).

Cincinnati: VouchedFor, Michael Bergman, 33, David Volker, 31, Bree Bergman, 31, Stephen Hartz, 34.

Cleveland: Flock’d, Greg Svitak, 37, and Kurt Pettit, 34. According to its website, Flock’d is a mobile application that lets groups check-in at bars and request rewards from the bars’ owners or managers.

Louisville: Impulcity, Hunter Hammonds, 21, and Austin Cameron, 22. They’ve already received some press in Louisville for a plan to use data from a person’s social media presence to recommend events and venues that fit his or her interests.

New York: Socstock, Jay Finch, 26, and Angelo Stracquatanio, 25. Its website describes an online platform that helps small businesses raise capital from their community of supporters, in return for future goods and services at the business.

New Jersey: FlazCar, Rujul Zaparde, 17, Shri Ganeshram, 18, and Kevin Petrovic, 18.

Salt Lake City: CrowdHall, Austin Hackett, 27, Jordan Menzel, 27, and Nick Wientge, 34, of San Diego (and Cincinnati native). A website for the company calls it a free online platform that lets high-profile people respond to public discourse and lets crowds more effectively communicate with those high-profile people.

San Francisco: 360Pager, Vinay Murthy, 45, and Vikram Venkataraghavan, 36.

Seattle: FlyDutch, Andy Zhang, 26, George Lin, 26, and Sean Wen, 27. According to a profile on AngelList, a site that matches startups and investors, FlyDutch helps online daters meet in person faster, safer and more casually.


The Brandery has a team of over 55 mentors with top notch business and startup experience. The list includes Mike Bott, the General Manager of The Brandery; Lucas Watson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at YouTube; and Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of Living Social.
Powerhouse VC firms including Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital and Polaris also have mentors participating. This is actually one of the strongest teams of mentors we’ve seen at an incubator “everywhere else”.
The program officially starts July 2 and will end with a Demo Day set for October 3rd when all 11 teams will show off their startups.
Linkage:
Source: Enterchange at Cincinnati.com
For more information visit brandery.org
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Knoxville Startup: Virtuous Products Wins Business Plan Competition

Imagine if you could take recycled bottles and turn them into flooring, countertops and even outdoor casual furniture. Well you don’t have to imagine it anymore because Mark Wassenaar and his startup Virtuous Products Inc, have created it. Well at least the business plan for it.

The material called Sedonite uses recycled glass with the strength and look of resin or cement based products at a fraction of the cost, and much greener.

“We were impressed by all the entrepreneurs who took part in this competition,” Todd Napier, executive vice president of The Development Corporation of Knox County and co-presenter of the program with the Knoxville Chamber and Tech20/20 said. “Virtuous Products shows an enormous amount of promise and the judges indicated they expect big things from the start-up in the years to come.”

The Knoxville Chamber Business Plan Competition actually started back in April. That’s when Wassenaar submitted his original business plan. He was able to survive four rounds of judging which included written summaries and in person proof of concept presentations.

Tabletops made out of recycled glass and "sedonite" are why Virtuous Products won the Knoxville Chamber Competition (photo: Sedonite.com)

As the winner of the competition Virtuous Products wins:

  •         $10,000 grant for start-up costs
  •      $15,000 potential investment: Tech 20/20 Venture Start-up Fund
  •      One-year’s rent at the Fairview Technology Center
  •      Accounting services provided by Rodefer Moss & Company
  •      Business coaching provided by CEO Advisors
  •      IT Hosting/Services by The IT Company & Digital Crossing Networks
  •      Legal Services by Kathleen Zitzman
  •      Chamber membership by the Knoxville Chamber
  •      Business coaching by Tech 20/20



Wassenaar has plans to use the prize money to purchase a glass crusher, which will allow him to take recycled beer bottles and smash them into a sand-like consistency. From there, his company takes the material and can put it into a molding with a proprietary bonding agent that creates a faux stone surface that is as strong and less expensive than most competitors on the market today.

 “I’ve been in manufacturing my whole life. I try to get out but it just keeps coming back because there is so much creativity involved. I literally lie awake at night thinking of new ideas,” Mark Wassenaar, the founder and CEO of Virtuous Products said. “This competition, even if I didn’t win, it would have been an unbelievable opportunity because the competition really helped me along the way.”

Linkage:
Find out more about Sedonite and Vertous Products here
Find out more about the Knoxville Chamber here
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Cornell University Startup: Empire Robotics Wins Five Minute Pitch Contest

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A robotics startup founded by Cornell University students in Ithaca New York took home the top spot in the recent Worcester PolyTechnic Institutes Venture Forum Five Minute Pitch Contest.

The young entrepreneurs are hoping to develop their robotic gripper technology, think those wild orange gripper things, that functions robotically.

According to the Worcester Business Journal
The gripper is a ball-shaped elastic membrane filled with granular material attached to a robotic arm. The air pressure inside the ball is manipulated to adjust the softness or hardness of the gripper, allowing it to conform around and squeeze objects.
This exactly the kind of tech that’s missing for bringing more agile manufacturing to the United States, to automate manufacturing lines in the United States, and that’s exactly what we intend to do with this patent pending technology,” John Amend, the company’s chief technology officer told a roomful of businesspeople, investors and others gathered in the school’s campus center Tuesday evening.

The team took home a prize of $2500. While they aren’t breaking the bank with that kind of prize money, they are getting invaluable exposure from the investor community.

A company called SafeSiren which makes a safety device for school students took home the second pace prize. Other ideas presented included a better way to sterilize catheters, an energy management system for hotels and a blue tooth device designed to replace hearing aids. Check out the source link below for more on those companies.

Source: Worcester Business Journal