The University of Maryland Business School held the Pitch Dingman competition on Friday, a chance for student entrepreneurs to win money for their ideas and get feedback from experienced businessmen and businesswomen.
The competition, held the last Friday of each month during the semester, consisted of four teams. Each had six minutes to present their idea to a panel of judges, and judges asked questions after. Judges scored each presentation and then decided the winners and how to divide up the $2,500 prize money.
Frankie Abralind, a second-year MBA student in the Smith School who helped coordinate the event, said that what he liked most about this competition was that the ideas are often “really half-baked, so you see a lot more creativity without any sort of restrictions.”
Judges assessed presentations by the compelling value of the idea, the size of the target market and competitive advantage, among other things. Harry Geller, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Smith who helped contact the judges, said that judges look for “potential home-runs” in business ideas and the needs the idea addresses.
First place, along with $1,500, was given to Nathan Rocklein and Triton Light Technology for developing a prototype that could detect when and where a GPS-blocking device was in use. This was especially useful, Rocklein said, when near airports, where such devices can disrupt airplane navigational systems.
Though the idea is still in planning, Geller said that judges liked that it filled “a need no one really understands.”
Second place, along with $750, went to Birich Technologies. Presented by Kevin Diehn, this company is seeking to research and market a new cancer-fighting medicine developed by the National Institute of Health. Diehn also won the audience popular choice award of $250.
Third place and $250 went to Shades For U. Pitched by CEO Brian Heffner, it is a company started a month ago on campus that sells sunglasses with Maryland flag themes. UMD Party Operations, an event planning company for students, placed last.
Besides the competition, the Pitch Dingman Center in the Smith School has office hours every Friday for students to pitch ideas to an entrepreneur for ideas and help. Abralind said that everyone in the Friday’s competition had gone through the center first.
“Some people who come to office hours have come… with one specific question, they’re not here to win a competition. They just want help with their business they’re going to launch.”