The Peplow Pavilion in the Hayden-Clark Alumni Center was filled on Thursday with finely-dressed business investors, eager to hear five startups and businesses present their ideas.
NTS Innovations, Lux Blox, Engineering People, Empire Fishing and Moxie Fitness Apparel all pitched ideas about their products and ideas to start the competition. A panel of investors sat up front to ask questions regarding revenue models and other business-related topics of discussion.
The Brave Launch business consisted of involved five teams and nine sessions of training that assisted them with discovering the real business opportunity for their idea and gaining knowledge of what it takes to launch a business.
Moxie Fitness Apparel won for Best Business Model and People’s Choice which resulted in a monetary gain of $3,000. NTS Innovations won for Best Pitch and Lux Blox won for Best Pivot, each were awarded $1,000.
“I wanted to see how the teams took all the research they have done around understanding their own brand and their audience’s perception of what they have to bring to the market and how they pitch to these different teams of investors,” Nick Goodin, OSF Healthcare Marketer and storyteller, said.
Goodin worked with some of the teams to help engage customers and integrate their stories in their pitches.
One of the pitch presentations, Moxie Fitness, focused on a problem that not many are aware of: leakage.
Founder and chief executive officer, Holly Mosack, shared her story of competing in a CrossFit competition where she had an accident trying to perform a power clean. Mosack explained that one in three women suffer from leaks caused by pressure on the bladder.
From there, she developed the idea for creating capris and shorts for women that would be a long-lasting solution and discreetly hide an accident.
Goodin explained that Moxie’s did a good job of facial expressions, creating and holding space for people to engage their brand.
“Moxie’s pitch stuck out to me.” Goodin said. “They used more than just their PowerPoint slides and the copy they had written down.”
The second half of the event split into the company’s journey through the Brave Launch process, a lunch and then an awards ceremony.
Lux Blox’s Co-Founder, Mike Acerra, talked about using this journey to change and challenge himself and his team, pushing toward a heavier emphasis on STEM education.
They plan on creating a Lux digital classroom, a Lux digital builder, focus on robotics and develop special packages for occupational therapists and adult training.
Each business reevaluated their goals and developments through the experience and came away with a better understanding on how to achieve them in the process.
