The Launch Place received 71 applications for its 7th IdeaFest Pitch Competition from various start-up companies located in the U.S. and abroad. The top 20 competitors took the stage Thursday to present their innovative business ideas in the River District of Danville.

 The winner of this year’s competition was Acta Solutions who was awarded a $5,000 cash prize. Acta has developed a solution for public agencies. Public agencies are constantly fielding inquiries and collecting information from customers to deliver municipal services. This creates long conversations, frequent follow-ups, and back-and forth email chains — decreasing the revenue agencies make from service fees. Acta Mustang™ streamlines customer conversations—giving them time back for higher-value responsibilities, and recapturing lost revenue for public agencies.

Second place and a $3,000 cash award went to My Relief Wear LLC. My Relief Wear is a casual cold therapy clothing company with patent-pending technology changing the process of icing pain by fusing ice packs and clothing. Steelbasis took home third place with a $2,000 cash prize. Steelbasis was built for boutique real estate developers to have an advantage over their competition by relieving the administrative burden of managing their vendors.

Winners of the competition will also be eligible to receive 25 hours of free business consulting from The Launch Place. The Launch Place, located in the River District of Danville, assists with business formation, job creation and retention through its business consulting services and investment funding, while having a dual responsibility to recruit and retain entrepreneurs to the Dan River Region. The IdeaFest competition exposes The Launch Place’s services and funds to start-up companies that are ready to launch, or are seeking early stage capital. The Launch Place could potentially invest in the company from its Seed and Pre-Seed Funds that were established from a grant awarded by the Danville Region Foundation.

The Launch Place President and CEO Eva Doss explained what Launch Place is all about.

“We invest in start-up companies,” she said. “We invest in early stage entrepreneurs and want to grow their business.”

She continues with how much help these events are to the companies.

“It’s a humongous help because they are not just exposed to us but also to other investors.”

She says these kinds of events can help fine tune company pitches, meet mentors and coaches to help them grow and network among themselves.

“It’s a very important step,” Doss said.

The competition kicked off with a keynote speech from Braden Rawls, Co-Founder & CEO of Vital Plan, a portfolio company of The Launch Place. Braden co-founded Vital Plan in 2009 with her father, Dr. Bill Rawls, a conventionally trained physician who discovered the value of herbal therapy during his recovery from chronic Lyme disease. Their shared goals of providing clinical-grade herbal extracts, formulation transparency, and unparalleled customer support and education formed the foundation principles of the company. As CEO of this B Corporation®, Braden is an advocate for the change that enlightened choices in consumerism can bring, and for empowering customers through product transparency and education.

Companies that pitched included: Mercier, Avex Motion, VAROS Technologies Inc., My Relirf Wear LLC, Southern Drone Company, V-Card, Jabin Beverage Co., Steelbasis LLC, TSV Analytics, Relai, Inc., Acta Solutions, ChxmpionChip LLC, EZread LLC, Stitch Partners, Veather, Luuup, Ditto., BLKResumes, Divergene and FJ.

Judges for this competition included: Dr. Iulian Bobe, Corey Davis, Jan Davis, Shawna C. Lemon and Marco Rubin.

 

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