Gigtank’s Pitch Night
Startups aim to leverage Chattanooga’s high-speed internet
It’s estimated that 70 percent of Americans will need end-of-life long-term care, and 50 percent of them will suffer depression — something that Reed Hayes knows about, since some of his family members were in assisted living communities.
That’s what inspired Hayes, a Chattanooga native who’s getting a master’s degree in business administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and his business partner Dennis Lally and fellow MIT MBA student, to co-found Rendever.
It’s a startup company that plans to sell assisted living centers virtual reality goggles and Rendever’s software platform so seniors who can’t travel can virtually visit
“We make it feel like they’re actually there, so they don’t miss a thing.”
– REED HAYES
exotic locations, see their childhood neighborhoods via Google street view and take part in family occasions, such as weddings.
“We make it feel like they’re actually there, so they don’t miss a thing,” Hayes said.
Hayes and Lally pitched their business idea Wednesday night along with 11 other startup companies — most of which were from Chattanooga — at the Gigtank 365 Pitch Night on the fifth floor of Edney Building at the corner of Market and 11th streets in downtown’s Innovation District.
Hosted by the Company Lab (Co.Lab), Gigtank showcases startups whose business ideas aim to take advantage of Chattanooga’s citywide high-speed internet offered by EPB at speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second.
Participants, who come
“Come and see us so we can show you how to turn your $1 million into a billion.” – ASHLEE SCHRADER
from cities as close as Birmingham, Ala., and as far away as Hoboken, N.J., pitched ideas for businesses in 3-D printing, telehealth, social networking and more.
Angela Otero is president of iPrint 3-D, a Hixson-based startup that sells a 3-D printer to orthodontists that lets them make clear, plastic retainers in their offices, instead of a far-off lab, which she said saves orthodontists money and speeds up the teeth-straigtening process.
“Make your portfolio smile,” Otero told potential investors in the standing-room-only crowd, promising a 10- to 20-fold return on investment.
Another speaker was Graham Bredemeyer, founder and CEO of Collider, a Chattanooga company that has a prototype 3-D printer Bredemeyer said is 100 times faster than most printers and produces parts with mechanical properties and surface finishes as good as traditionally manufactured parts.
Mother-and-daughter entrepreneurs Kerry and Ashlee Schrader, from Franklin, Tenn., said they’re looking for $1 million to fund their smartphone app called Mixtroz that lets strangers in large settings, such as an incoming class of college freshmen, connect in smaller groups for face-to-face meetups.
“Come and see us so we can show you how to turn your $1 million into a billion,” Ashlee Schrader promised.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.