Start-up fund competition launches
Montgomery County’s Start-Up Accelerator Fund competition launches with a splash
WHITPAIN » Aspiring entrepreneurs were treated to a blastoff in grand style for the third annual Karen A. Stout Start-Up Accelerator Fund competition at Montgomery County Community College’s Parkhouse Hall Atrium on Monday.
The program, named in honor of President Emerita Karen A. Stout, fired up the would-be tycoons with some confidencebuilding tips provided by venture capitalist Wayne Kimmel, who shared insights from his new book, “Six Degrees of Wayne Kimmel.”
Kimmel’s sage investments, which might hopefully embolden any endeavoring entrepreneur in search of advice, have included Grubhub and Nutrisystem.
The event was also streamed live to the college’s West Campus in Pottstown.
“We decided to step it up a little this year with a kickoff event to announce the accelerator fund and also the new Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which is open to any entrepreneur that has made an impact in Montgomery County,” said Gaetan Giannini, dean of Business and Entrepreneurial Initiatives. “It’s also Global Entrepreneurship Week, so the timing was right for us.”
Budding entrepreneurs are required to submit their business plans by Feb. 28, 2018 at www. mc3.edu/accelerator. From those submissions, around six applicants will then be chosen to come out to the college next April to pitch their business concepts to a panel of judges, who will award between $1,000 and $25,000 to help launch or grow their business ventures, explained Giannini, who likened the pitch presentation to the popular TV series “Shark Tank.”
“We aren’t as aggressive as the folks in the TV show, but we do put the applicants through their paces; they need to prove their concept and their economic model and we want to make sure they’re ready,” he said.
Business owners, who must be located in Montgomery County or be able to demonstrate a significant potential impact on the county from their venture, will be expected to articulate on several aspects of their proposals, including market feasibility; competitive advantage; value to customers; financial feasibility; management skills and potential impact to Montgomery County and the region over the short and long term.
“We’re funded for about $30,000 this year for up to six companies, so we’re not going to put anybody over the top,” Giannini said. “If somebody needs a million dollars we’re a baby step toward that. But what we want to do is make sure they have a little seed money to keep the idea flowing, and when they go to the next step and go to a guy like Wayne Kimmel and ask for money, they’re prepared.”
Award recipients will work with the College’s Center for Entrepreneurial Services and are eligible for inclusion in the College’s Entrepreneurship Academy, which is co-sponsored by Drexel University’s Close School of Entrepreneurship, for assistance in preparing their business plans, to set key milestones and to monitor progress and outcomes.
This year applicants’ proposals will be designated into specific categories for the first time, Giannini explained.
“Last year we had a Human Resources firm, one that did apps and one that trained ser-
vice dogs. It’s difficult as a judge looking at three different companies and you can only fund one of them, what do you do? It’s hard to compare somebody working with service dogs to somebody doing an app delivering food to your house. So we came up with three very broad categories — technology/manufacturing, services and social organizations. Historically, those are the ones that we’ve been seeing come through. Eventually we would like to expand to more categories.”
Previous award recipients included GamePlan ($4,000), a mobile app which
helps people make personalized group decisions on where to eat and drink; NeuroFlow ($20,000), a software solution which promises to change the way we see brain health; Alpha Bravo Canine ($3,000), a non-profit organization that provides service dogs to veterans diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; iCareQuality ($15,000), a start-up
firm which develops scalable, open-source technology to advance the science of the healthcare industry; and Cryten ($10,000), which provides information technology staffing and recruitment services to organizations.
Cryten’s $10,000 was awarded as an advance to be paid back in full to the Accelerator Fund within
one year. However, for every Norristown resident or veteran hired by Cryten, within the year, the payback will be reduced by $2,000.
The ramifications of the Karen A. Stout Start-Up Accelerator Fund competition go well beyond the Center for Entrepreneurial Services, Giannini noted.
“We’re introducing our students to entrepreneurship, because we think it’s important not just for business students, but we’ve got a really great STEM program — in science, technology and engineering. Those guys have the entrepreneurial spirit. If we can help them look at not only the technological side but the business side,” he added, “that’s a really important contribution.”