In front of 150 attendees, 4 venture capitalist “Shark Tank” judges, and 7 members of The Principium Foundation who presented the event, two emerging companies from Indian River County won the top two slots in the inaugural Research Coast Business Plan Competition. The event was held Thursday, March 21 at the Mueller Campus at Indian River State College’s Richardson Center in Vero Beach.
From a submission list of thirty-four and 10 semi-finalists, the attending audience enjoyed an agenda of speakers followed by an analysis of plans and ideas from the 5 semifinalists that included Azzly, Ensida Energy, Secure Pharma Chain, Triton Submarines and TruMobility. All semi-finalists were Indian River County except for Ensida from Martin County.
TruMobility received a cash prize of $25,000, the title of Inaugural Champion, as well as a package of free legal, accounting and mentoring advice. They offer Private Cellular Network solutions, which enable businesses to integrate cellular phones with their corporate phone systems. They are the only B2B cellular carrier in the U.S. that has combined a Hosted PBX solution with a Private Cellular Network and nationwide cellular voice, text and data. The result is a business communications solution that substantially lowers communication costs, increases mobile productivity and eliminates coverage gaps in the office.
Enjoying a cash prize of $15,000 plus a package of free legal, accounting and mentoring advice was Azzly, the second place winner. Azzly is a healthcare platform serving small to mid –size practice and clinic locations delivering a fully integrated web based Electronic Health Record (EHR), Practice Management (PM)/ Revenue Cycle Management(RCM), Patient Health Record (PHR), Claims and Clearinghouse business solution for independent physician and other provider practices…through an affordable monthly subscription.
The top ten semi-finalists displayed company booths throughout the event venue and included Herolaunch, JMM Creations, Donk Board, Medical Equipment Technologies and Tusk Video. The panelists/judges were Jason Rottenberg, Dale M. Gregory, Robert Fleming and Matthew E. Avril. Members of the Principium Foundation are John Moore and Kevin Barry (Partners in Rossway Swan Attorneys at Law), Ed Tighe (retired entrepreneur and independent trustee), Jan Pagano (Associate Dean of Administrative Services at Indian River State College), Michael Corbit (Regional Talent Acquisition Manager at Workforce Solutions), Russell Bjorkman (International Corporate Attorney) and Vinny Olmstead (Founder of Vocap Ventures). Sponsors of the event included Bank of America, Indian River State College, Rossway Swan, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspaper, Vocap Ventures, Workforce Solutions, Rehmann, Florida Venture Forum and the Principium Foundation.
The Foundation plans to make the Business Plan Competition an annual event. For information on the 2013 or future events, please contact www.rcbiznovation.com.
