STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The Ben Franklin TechCelerator@State College has awarded a cash prize of $10,000 to a graduate of its latest Business Startup Boot Camp for entrepreneurs.
The event, held May 24 and attended by other budding entrepreneurs as well as potential investors, highlighted the business startup presentations of six entrepreneurs who had gone through a 10-week program targeting tech startups. Each spoke about the market they planned to enter, the problem their product or service solves, and how their idea will make money for them and future investors.
The winner, Joel Edelstein with Triglyph, developed an energy-efficient, smart lighting system for use in the film, television and photography markets. A team of judges from the local community made the final decision on the winning presentation.
The other presenters included:
- Jack Chernega with AbDisc developed a wearable-tech device that specifically addresses the serious health issues caused by “sitting disease.”
- Amit Sharma with DeZI developed a smartphone application capable of creating supply chain links between local farmers and food retail establishments.
- John Stogin with Scribble Online developed a drawing app that allows multiple users to write on the same virtual page and talk to each other through VoIP.
- Beth Kirchgessner with Sights LLC developed an easy-to-use card pack that allows teachers and parents to provide more effective instruction for the first 200 most common “sight” words.
- Matt Woods with X Materials Processing developed a low-cost metal 3D printing system with multi-material processing capabilities.
Guests participating in a Pennsylvania Angel Network meeting at Innovation Park attended the graduation event of the Ben Franklin TechCelerator followed by a networking event. The Pennsylvania Angel Network is an organization serving the angel investor community in Pennsylvania. Attendees represented 10 different angel investor groups including Blue Tree Allied Angels, Robinhood Ventures, Delaware Crossing and Lehigh Valley Angel Investors. The angel investors came to Innovation Park to learn more about Ben Franklin Technology PArtners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania and the Invent Penn State initiative.
“For the past 10 weeks, all the participants gave it their all,” said Don McCandless, director of the TechCelerator. “This process is not an easy one and we consider everyone who gets to the end a winner. Everyone did a great job, and I’d like to applaud the collective effort. Congratulations to our grand-prize winner.”
Located in the Technology Center at 200 Innovation Boulevard in State College, the TechCelerator@State College is a partnership among several of the area’s economic development providers that offers budding entrepreneurs designated space, loan and investment programs, business support and mentoring services, and entrepreneurial training all housed in one location. For more information, go to http://www.techceleratorstatecollege.org.