Five teams advance to undergraduate Business Pitch Competition finals April 16

Five University of Richmond student teams have advanced to the April 16 finals in the Entrepreneurship Club’s Business Pitch Competition for budding entrepreneurs. Twenty-seven teams pitched ideas for new businesses to a panel of faculty and local business leaders in round one of the competition April 9.

The final round will be held in the Robins School of Business, Room 138, 5 p.m. It is open to the public. First prize is $3,500 and the opportunity to present the winning idea to a group of local angel investors. The second place team will earn $1,000, and the third place team wins $500.

The annual competition encourages Richmond students to think entrepreneurially. Each pitch is measured for concept, clarity, comprehensiveness, realistic implementation and potential value.

Experts and entrepreneurs from outside the university will judge the finals. They include Robin Smith of Entrepreneurs’ Source; Mike Bucci, owner and founder of K&M of VA; Mark Deutsch, founder of Mark M. Deutsch, LLC; Laura Posey, chief instigator at Dancing Elephants; Will Boland, co-founder of CarLotz; Paul Trible, co-founder of Ledbury; Avrum Elmakis, owner of Best Bully Sticks; Roy Goodman, chief financial officer at Luck Companies; Hayden McMillian, managing director at Crescent Capital; and Frank Ball and Mike McGinley, both managing partners of New Dominion Angels.

Previous winners of the competition include Jimmy Hahn, Henry Webbe, Maxence Decarre, Kevin Walsh and Jason Sakoian, who won last year for their pitch of Leash-Be-Gone, which uses Bluetooth technology on a cell phone to set a radius (similar to an invisible fence) for a pet.

For more information about the competition, contact Jeff Pollack, assistant professor of management at the Robins School of Business, at 804-287-1821.

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