Edison and Ford would have been proud to see the turnout and buzz supporting the four brave startup entrepreneurs who condensed their hard work and American Dreams of building successful businesses into 8 minute impassioned presentations at the Venture Pitch SWFL #VPSWFL event last night in Fort Myers.
Southwest Florida has all of the ingredients necessary to foster a healthy start-up community: Entrepreneurial talent, low cost of living, high density of retired executives and entrepreneurs, an easy access airport and loads of untapped capital.
Events like VenturePitch SWFL is working to bring all of these ingredients together to make the magic happen, with the help of organizations like The Florida Venture Forum,Tamiami Angels, Southwest Florida Regional Technology Partnership and Collier County Accelerator Catalyst.
It may look easy on TV’s ‘Shark Tank’, but it takes some serious guts to get up and sell your dream in 8 minutes to a theatre full of potential investors, peers and colleagues.
While this event didn’t have the superstar billionaires throwing hard money offers at the contestants like the real ‘Shark Tank’, bragging rights, exposure and investor deals were at stake for the participants.
The entrepreneurs were a diverse group that included:
- Innovative and cost effective oil refining process called Hammer Technology by Superior Upgrading
- A patented online re-finance lead generation for mortgage servicers calledAboutYourMortgate.com
- DinoLingo.com, a fun, language learning immersion program for kids that offers 44 languages worldwide
- GameNation.com, a Video Gamers dream come true: Real Life Theme Parks for Gamers.
Learn more about each of these exciting concepts and entrepreneurs if you are interested in investing or learning more.
To kick off the event, Robbie Roepstorff, shared her story of founding Edison National Bank and Bank of the Islands. Robbie talked about the excitement of raising capital from private investors, securing prime real estate, surviving the downturn, giving back to the community and treating employees like family.
Her advice to her younger self?
In the good times, when money is rolling in, it can be easy to forget to plan. Always plan for the bad times, especially in the good times. – Robbie Roepstorff, President, Edison National Bank/Bank of the Islands
In the end, while there was a clear winner who took both the audience vote and won on over the judges as the most fundable (see below to find out who won),all of the startups that pitched won great exposure and new connections that can help take their businesses to the next level.
See below for a tweet-cap (See all tweets on Twitter @Cmpusateri) of the highlights of the night and stay tuned below for details on how to get involved.
Did you attend the event? What was your take? Share your thoughts about the event and our startup community in Southwest Florida!
** To be clear, these are FUN kids language learning games and have nothing to do with Firearms (Dang Autocorrect!)
Dino Lingo, based and operated in Downtown Fort Myers was the big winner, taking home both the Audience Text Vote and the Judge’s selection for most investable business based on market opportunity, credibility, business stage, team and concept.
Missed the event? Want to help put Southwest Florida on the entrepreneurs’ short list? Check out http://www.venturepitchswfl.com for the next SWFL venture pitch event to be held in Sarasota, and join the Tech Community and help us grow athttp://swfrtp.org/