Two teams walked away from the Davidson Venture Fund pitch competition last week with a combined $30,000.
The Davidson Venture Fund was established eight years ago by Marian and Chip Nisbet, class of 1986. The fund provides students and recent alumni capital to help fuel the expansion of their innovative ideas through Davidson's The Hurt Hub.
Liz Brigham, director of the Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College, said 12 teams applied for the competition this year — seven student teams and five alumni teams. The top five teams were selected to pitch for a panel of judges and a chance to win an equity investment.
"In order to win the equity investment, these companies need to be incorporated. We actually received more applications than in some past years," she Brigham said. "Covid didn't have any impact on the interest and demand to participate, which was fabulous."
This year's competition was held virtually, and the five teams to pitch were Pomegrana, Orion Consulting Solutions, FinSiteful, Hawk.io and 4Ever Curly. The event was not held in 2020 because of the pandemic.
- Crowd favorite: FinSiteful. Team members are Tea Rankin-Williams, Jack Clary and Axel Fries — all 2020 graduates.
- Judges selection: Orion Consulting Solutions. Team members are Owen Bezick, Davidson class of 2021; Nicole Bracco, Hurt Hub co-worker; Calvin Spencer, Davidson class of '23; and Dayton Simenz, Davidson class of '21.
The FinSiteful team won a $5,000 cash grant, and the Orion Consulting Solutions team won a $25,000 equity investment.
"This was our first go at a virtual event. We were trying to be innovative and creative in the face of Covid," Brigham said. "For the online pitch piece, we took a page from Techstars Demo Days. Frankly, we might keep that online portion as a consistent piece of the Venture Fund because it was a really fun way for all the finalists to break into the marketing world."
Brigham said this year's competition involved 18 mentors, 15 of whom were Davidson graduates, as well as Hurt Hub employees. The teams participated in a six-week lunch-and-learn series leading up to the event, something Brigham said was new this year. The weekly sessions covered the primary tenants of a good pitch, she said.
"There were conversations with some faculty members who said they loved the competition, but in years' past there had been quite a large discrepancy between the alumni and student teams," she said. "We thought that if we provided this educational layer, at least everyone would have a base understanding, and it absolutely made a difference in the student pitches."
Brigham said the addition of educational sessions gives the Venture Fund competition more formality and elevates standards across the board.
"We talk a lot about our vision to provide access and exposure," she said. "For those who have these ventures, we can support them with all of these aspects — a critical combination of mentorship, education and capital."
