Looking composed and confident, entrepreneur Lara Neece stood in front a panel of judges this week and gave a three-minute pitch for a durable, A-line skirt designed specifically for women who want to cycle to work without getting bicycle chain grease on their clothes.
“Our mission is to get people to spend more time outside, and we want to create sustainable, functional apparel that allows them to do so,” she said of the Bicycle Wrap Skirt, which she wore on stage.
For her innovative idea and strong pitch, Neece was awarded overall winner of local nonprofit The Creative Coast’s sixth annual FastPitch competition on Thursday, taking home $2,650 in prize money.
Neece is founder of Forest and Fin, an environmentally inspired screen printing clothing company, and said she plans to use the money to make more sample skirts to send out to bike shops and other potential retailers.
“My husband found out about FastPitch and said, ‘You should do this,’” she said. “I didn’t think I would get in.”
She said she wants to expand her product line beyond the silk-screening that she does currently to include items like the wrap skirt and other functional outdoor wear.
Twenty participants pitched their products and services Thursday to a panel of six judges and three panelists who asked three minutes of follow-up questions after each presentation. The three competition categories were service-based, product-based and student entrepreneurs, and were evaluated for criteria including innovation, impact, structure and delivery of the pitch.
“We had more applicants and from a greater variety,” said Bea Wray, executive director of the Creative Coast.
She said that included applicants from all three of the city’s major colleges and from as far away as Israel to the east and Ohio to the west — although most participants were actually based in Savannah.
People, pets and other ideas
Runner-up in this year’s competition was FosterFit, a wellness program for pets and people launched by Lea Lynch in February. Tackling the nationwide obesity epidemic, Lynch said partnering people with their pets is a great way to get healthy.
“FosterFit dogs and their human partners work together as a team to lose weight and regain optimal health,” she told the judges. “Don’t have a dog? No problem, we’ll match you with one from the local Humane Society who needs your help.”
Lynch said she is joining forces with Brown University to do research on her program’s efficacy for publication in medical journals.
“It was a wonderful experience,” Lynch said. “Not only did I get to talk to more people about FosterFit, but I got to meet people who had wonderful advice for me and how I could grow the company beyond this point.”
The daylong competition allowed for several networking breaks for investors and fellow entrepreneurs to swap business cards and ideas over how to grow their companies.
Ideas pitched Thursday represented the diversity of the Coastal Empire, from aviation to boating to content-sharing applications. The winner of the student category was Andy Cabistan, an Armstrong State graduate student, for his pitch on a peer-to-peer phone and web application called Turbee for making short-distance, in-person deliveries.
One entrepreneur, Minis Hillis, pitched 360 Treestands, “the first ladder stand that wraps completely around the tree and gives you full views.” Hillis said he’d been contacted by musician Ted Nugent, also an avid hunter and businessman, for a meeting about the product in the coming weeks.
Savannah College of Art and Design student Jack Burrows, 19, got an enthusiastic round of applause for his perfect pitching of an action-adventure PC game launching next year, while Savannah State sophomore Mario Williams received encouraging feedback from the panel for his Snaplet bracelet with interchangeable trinkets.
Several of the products and services pitched, including board game Fujian Trader, are raising money through Kickstarter or plan to do some sort of crowdfunding campaign in the near future.
This was the first year Creative Coast held the event at its new digs called the Creators’ Foundry on West Boundary Street.
Wray said the takeaway from this year’s FastPitch is that Savannah’s startup culture is alive and well.
“It’s real and it’s active and there’s plenty of opportunity for every citizen to get involved somehow,” she said. “Way more important than starting your own thing is to go buy one of these products and support one of these Kickstarters — go make a true investment so your child can have a job someday.”
2015 FastPitch Winners
Overall: Bicycle Wrap Skirt, Lara Neece (forestandfin.com)
Runner-up: FosterFit, Lea Lynch (fosterfit.org)
1st place Service-Based Entrepreneur: FosterFit, Lea Lynch
Runner-up: Plexr Reaction Sharing, Prateek Jain (teamplexr.com)
1st place Product-Based Entrepreneur: Bicycle Wrap Skirt, Lara Neece
Runner-up: CERAS Systems LLC, David Sklar
1st place Student Entrepreneur: Turbee, Andy Cabistan (Twitter @AndyCabistan)
Runner-up: Paladin Aviation, Charlie Loomis (paladin-aviation.com)
Audience Favorite: Plexr Reaction Sharing, Prateek Jain