Short pitches compete for long dollars
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It's elevator pitch time again, where we can learn about interesting new businesses 60 seconds at a time, courtesy of the Enterprise Forum, which lets budding entrepreneurs do a quick pitch to a panel and audience in quests to get funding from someone listening.
This year's pitches ran the gamut from a professor from University of Pittsburgh who wants to put a computer in a button that you can wear on your chest (much the way band parents in high school show off their kids in uniform) to a student entrepreneur, coincidentally also from Pitt, who wants a small chunk of change to create a market to match other students to rental properties.
As usual, the recent Enterprise Forum at Pittsburgh Golf Club in Oakland chose a panel of experts moderated by David Gurwin, a lawyer who can handle the task as well as Ryan Seacrest. This year's panel included Donald Belt, managing partner of a private equity firm; Joe Hipsky, an investment banker for a large European bank; and Desmond O'Connor, executive-in-residence at Innovation Works -- he helps young companies identify and deal with critical business issues.
This year's panel did the usual bang-up job of providing excellent feedback to the entrepreneur after each 60-second pitch, and gave the audience some chuckles along the way. For instance, Mr. Hipsky said of the idea of the computer on a button with reference to Star Trek uniforms: "Who didn't think of William Shatner?"
One of the startup ideas that struck me as tremendously useful came from Melanie Feldman of Bookzingo (another college student), who had conceived a textbook exchange to run locally on various college campuses.
My wife had spent countless hours in September helping our two college kids find their textbooks at reasonable prices and get them purchased for use during the semester. What sounds like it should be easy is not so easy, and wastes plenty of time. Between getting the right edition, making sure it is shippable quickly and paying for it, it's tricky -- almost becoming a full-time job for my wife. I hope Ms. Feldman gets $200,000 in funding so we can use her service.
If you're looking to address the world's health-care needs, you could certainly find ideas in which to invest. Shawn Kelly's Bionic Eye is looking for $6 million for the next stage of development of a retinal prosthesis for people who are blind or will be.
Kelly Collier's ActivAided Orthotics is a device that trains people in good habits to reduce or avoid lumbar disorders. And QuantMD's Prahlad Menon has put together patent-pending software for physicians to use as a noninvasive method to detect early signs that a heart attack may happen later.
Colin Heiler was called from the audience to pitch his Optimistic Fuels, a process that lets diesel engines operate on more efficient fuels that are not oil based. Although he took only 30 seconds to describe his idea, all three panels liked it. That's efficient use of time (not to mention natural resources).
Kyle Behr pitched an idea to convert coconut shells to charcoal for Third World energy.
An unusual pitch came from Raymond Browell of Helodyne, who wants to launch the "world's first SUV of the sky." It hovers like a helicopter, is as fast as a small aircraft and is sold as a kit.
There's no word yet on whether any of the pitches landed any funds.
First Published December 4, 2011 12:00 am
