Product to keep fly fishermen's lines untangled wins top prize in Business Pitch Competition

November 20, 2013

Lauren Grainger, who grew up fly-fishing with her family in Wyoming, won the top prize in the University of Richmond’s Business Pitch Competition with a product designed to keep anglers’ lines untangled. The win comes with $3,500 and an opportunity to pitch the product to “angel investors” who might help her take it to the marketplace.

Grainger, a senior from Saratoga, Wyo., presented LineGuard to a panel of judges from outside the university during the final round of the annual competition at the Robins School of Business on Nov. 18.

Second place and $1,000 went to Brett Csorba, whose company PageChat offers a free Chrome extension that enables users to click, chat and connect to any PageChat user viewing the same web page on an easy to use, drop down chat window. Third place and $500 went to Pamir Nia and Christopher Bahlo for SweaTee, a specialized undershirt designed to fend off sweat stains and odor problems.

Grainger described LineGuard as “a feasible solution to a problem a ton of people are having” with fishing lines getting tangled around their feet. She said winning the competition will provide capital to help her move forward with the venture, as well as confidence in her ability to succeed with the business.

“The event was a great success,” said Jeffrey M. Pollack, assistant professor of management at the business school. “Any time we get quality students with good ideas together in a room with experienced entrepreneurs and investors, good things happen.”

The university’s Entrepreneurship Club, its Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Richmond chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth sponsored the competition.

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