Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Report from May Philadelphia, May 11

Philadelphia, May 11
As advertised, Startupalooza is truly a pitching network of Angel networks.
Accordingly, the winner was Pinch, a startup that travelled down from Boston and won with their idea for a marketplace of services based on peoples’ unique passions and avocations. This taskrabbit-type service allows people seeking unique experiences to find and hire the providers of these unusual, hard-to-find skills.
This is a new idea with a profit model and followers. It has some questions about its viability but the presentation was filled with enthusiasm and a sense of discovering a new marketplace.
Congratulations to Aakash Goklani of Pinch, who will be going to the Private Equity Forum at the Yale Club in NYC.
The Runner up was Habitat, a food delivery service for campus’ by Andrew Nakkashe. While this business is mildly profitable and seems to be well executed, the startup founded by students is still shadowed but the student-startup syndrome: ideas common in colleges do not necessarily travel to the real world where there is no shortage of competitors. Nevertheless, the founder impressed the judges with his crisp presentation and determined composure.

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