Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Report: Entrepreneurs Club & Start-Up Pitching

After 10 years of helping Start-Ups get funded, the iBreakfast finally
launched a special meeting group for Entrepreneurs with the help of the wonderful folks at Pace University's SCI2 Incubator. What makes this group
different is not only that it helps Entrepreneurs stay in touch with the
support providers they need and of course, the investment community, but it
enables them to work through the issues that define their business concepts.

At the heart of this group is the interactive, peer-to-peer discussion of
the issues shaping their business concepts. By using group dynamics to
analyze elevator pitches, the group is a powerful force to help start-ups
shape their ideas and make themselves salable to investors and
to customers alike. This is like Oprah for Entrepreneurs and no one leaves early...

The Entrepreneur Club will meet at least 3 times a year and is a special
membership package offered to iBreakfast Attendees. Just by signing up for
an iBreakfast Entrepreneur membership (currently $155 a year) members get 6
iBreakfast/iEvening events free. They can use 3 credits for a one-time
investor pitch and they can attend the Entrepreneur Meetings at no charge.

With support from people like Rosalind Resnick of Axxcess Business Centers,
who is a highly successful entrepreneur in here own right, the FENG CFO Club
and the pitch and marketing support of Laura Allen (15secondpitch.com) and
Sandra Holtzman who wrote "Lies Start-Ups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing) the group offers a lively interaction with leading industry figures and Entrepreneurs.

The next meeting will take place on Q1 with the support of Agency.com

IEVENING START-UP PITCHING REPORT

Once again the Start-Ups came out with a fascinating group of business ideas
that ran the gamut of arcane research to fast foods. The judges included
Josh Grotstein of SASI, Allan Grafman of Mercury Capital, M.J. Segal of
Joshua Capital and T.J. Walker or Media Training Worldwide, who critiqued
the presentations.

The winner was the MugsToGo, a nifty, patented way to add handles to Starbucks type
paper cups which are sold as an advertising medium. Since there are billions of cups
sold every year, the judges' sense of large numbers kicked in they voted
Tomas Leszczynski the winner. Many other companies got warm responses too.
BreadnBrie.com, a Fresh Direct competitor that uses technology to tie together
independent food producers to deliver bag of groceries to NY shoppers
was judged as having the best presentation. Mommies on Demand, an
IPTV-community solution for new mothers was judged interesting. Investors
were also very interested in the Universal Listing proposal for local
businesses from Name Dynamics which lists local businesses for a low $30 fee.
Chalex Corp, a low-cost, online document management system also got a mention.

The other companies were GreenCanopy a B2B Green business magazine.,
Tuglink a targeted jobsite, Darwninian Media Interactive and RealMarkets, a
Real Estate investors advisory.