“Have you ever wondered what would happen if you had to take care of a loved one?” entrepreneur Iona Newton asked a packed house to kick off last Friday’s sixth annual FastPitch business plan competition.
Iona was pitching TRN, her business concept for a full-service adult day-care program that cares for individuals who are in need of assistance with their activities for daily living.
And so began an incredible day filled with innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit. This energy-packed competition is a collaborative effort between ATDC (The Advanced Technology Development Center) and The Creative Coast with remarkable community support led by Georgia Southern University. More than fifty individuals and start-up companies applied for the opportunity to give a three minute pitch to a three person panel and ten judges.
Friday’s event was the culmination of weeks of orientation, in-person coaching and mentoring. Twenty-two presenters were divided into three categories: Early stage, local entrepreneur, and student.
I learned something from each of them and will take this opportunity to share a few snippets.
Ty Donaldson of Maven Makers compared a Collaborative Maker Work Space to a gym membership. “The end product,” he explained, “is not to develop a set of ‘abs’ but a set of developed products. The goal is to create a product with 3-D printers, wood working, etc.”
I learned that PLOW stands for Promote Love Over War.
When “shark” (a.k.a panelist) Jim Goodlett questioned Carlos Wilkerson about his Fish-N-Go gear, I learned he is playing in a $6 billion market that is growing 6 percent annually.
Geveryl Robinson of 10th Power Productions instructed that the 42 million people in the black demographic represent more than $1.5 trillion of buying power. I enjoyed seeing her describe her female wrestler character in her Web series who stomps on a Midol bottle.
Musician Eddie Wilson is also a convincing entrepreneur who stated, “You don’t have to be a tree-hugging hippie anymore to love getting solar power in your home.”
Myiah Hughes of Gyrl Talk presented a mobile social network based on a “freemium” revenue model where the base product is free but advanced features cost money. With partners having backgrounds in finance and marketing, their concept generated 1,500 downloads on day one.
Chris Gerards of Savannah’s Legendary Charcoal started off comparing haircuts, sex and charcoal. He progressed to combine environmentally friendly with tasty dinners and concluded with a passion and commitment to allow tourists to enjoy the taste of Savannah at home.
Mary Haggerty of Yes Love Weddings engaged us with the fact that Forbes defines the wedding business as a $70 billion industry. Her semi-custom wedding packages utilizing the Internet cut costs dramatically. Her positive energy shines through in a follow up email: “I’m really happy to be doing business here in Savannah. What a great supportive community! Love it.”
When the student category was designed, we knew we would see graduate students, part-time students and some undergraduate students. Oh the joy when John Jones of Woodville Tompkins High School took the stage. High school inventors: How cool is that? John’s Speaky Cool beach cooler/speaker with solar panels to recharge the batteries is already in the second prototype.
Other student innovations included SCAD’s Benjamin Koh’s Simpli-Stics which combine knife, fork, spoon and chopsticks to form a high end, long lasting anti-bacterial solution for eating utensils.
Andres Santanilla is another SCAD industrial design student who introduced il Movino, a combined bike lock and light.
This year’s overall FastPitch winner was also the audience choice: Jonathan Chambers and Go Local. Jonathan is a Georgia Southern student, father, husband and founder of Go Local, the mobile app for local activities.
Last year, the Creative Coast mentored 443 organizations and individuals and provided thousands of introductions. While every day at the “headquarters of hope” is inspiring, none is more inspiring than FastPitch pulling 23 superstars together to share display tables of innovation and lightning speed pitches. Videos of this year’s competition will be posted soon on www.thecreativecoast.org.
Bea Wray is the executive director of The Creative Coast, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the creative and entrepreneurial community within the region. Bea can be reached at 912-447-8457 or bea@thecreativecoast.org