Academics

Smeal MBA student wins seventh Penn State Idea Pitch Competition

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A second-year MBA student at the Penn State Smeal College of Business and self-described serial entrepreneur won the seventh Penn State Idea Pitch Competition on March 27.

Demetri Patitsas, who will graduate in May with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Leadership, won the $2,000 prize and a spot in the Global Entrepreneurship Week “Inc. U” competition in November, for his business startup called Huneycomb.com.

Huneycomb allows retailers to convert their brick and mortar locations into a “digital store view,” wherein customers can navigate through the physical retail spaces via 360-degree camera technology and make purchases via the Huneycomb online platform. Patitsas described it as Google street view for interior spaces but with purchasing power.

“Winning first place in the Penn State Idea Pitch Competition provided us funds, validation and visibility,” Patitsas said. “Winning was exhilarating and humbling all at once. We have worked so hard to get our foot in the door and build momentum for our startup.”

Patitsas said he has also started businesses ranging from ice cream trucks to a dance company and an international global immersion company in Guatemala called Exela Ventures.

Five teams competed for $3,500 in prize money. Ben Szoch (bioengineering) and Nick Slavtcheff (chemical engineering) won the second-place prize of $1,000. Smeal undergraduate Michael Black (finance) and his partner, Christian Underkoffler (security and risk analysis), won the third-place prize of $500.

Hosted and managed by Smeal’s Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the competition was created for the purposes of giving Penn State students, faculty, alumni and Pennsylvania entrepreneurs the opportunity to work together to learn how to effectively formulate and communicate the value of innovative ideas and turn them into real opportunities.

Follow this link to see a 360 panorama view of all the winners: http://huneycomb.com/assets/vtour/tour.html.

Demetri Patitsas Credit: Photo providedAll Rights Reserved.

Last Updated April 6, 2015