Lactation support company wins Entrepreneurship Club's 2013 Business Pitch Compitition

Cookies, Then Milk!, a lactation support company that produces and sells cookies and cookie mixes for breastfeeding mothers, won the University of Richmond Entrepreneurship Club’s Business Pitch Competition for budding entrepreneurs. Owner Nicole Bredeson, a junior from Largo, Fla., won $3,500 and the opportunity to present her company to angel investors.

Second place and $1,000 went to David Murphy, a senior from Boylston, Mass., for his nascent company, Tight Light. Boris Fedoroff, a junior from the Principality of Monaco, and Michael Rodgers, a junior from the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, won the $500 third prize for their business, ForPlayers.

Bredeson founded Cookies, Then Milk! in 2010 to close a gap in the market for dietary supplements that support lactation and are price sensitive and customizable for diet restrictions. She sells cookies and cookie mixes online and in retail locations in Florida, California and Canada. Bredeson plans to attend Dr. Oz’s baby shower and expo event, where she will consult with doctors and lactation consultants to develop her products.

Murphy founded Tight Light, an adhesive holster for cigarette lighters, in 2012. Murphy has pitched his idea to Marlboro and is conducting market research with Worth Products Group. He has obtained a provisional patent for the product.

ForPlayers is an online game tournament facilitator that Fedoroff and Rodgers said better aligns the high monetary cost of gaming with the reward for winning by coordinating tournaments among players. They will begin beta testing in June and launch in fall 2013 in South Korea.

The annual business pitch competition encourages Richmond students to think entrepreneurially. It is sponsored by the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG Richmond), a global community for middle market mergers and acquisitions dealmakers and business leaders focused on driving growth.

Experts and entrepreneurs from outside the university judged the finals on concept, clarity, comprehensiveness, realistic implementation and potential value. They included: Casey Bunn, owner of RSVPhere.com; Jim Brady, operating partner of Marlin Equity Partners; Mark Deutsch, CEO of Mark M. Deutsch LLC; Richard Harrison, founder of Marker History; Mike McGinley, managing partner of New Dominion Angels; Mitzi Reynolds, vice president of investor relations of Colfax Corp.; and Ashley Smith-O’Meara, sales and business development manager of Relay Foods.

# # #