The Rhode Island Business Competition has a new winner.
Brown University student and Newport native Joey Asbel took the top prize at last night's thirteenth annual Elevator Pitch Contest. He represented a five-person team from Zap Technologies, which has a partnership with American Automobile Association to create an "on-call, mobile charging system" for electric cars.
Another Brown University student, Ashton Stoop, took second place for Clutch Prosthetics, a "low-cost, mechanical knee joint."
Eight other participants, in addition to Asbel and Stoop, each walked home with $1,000 in cash prizes.
Participants pitched their work for 90 seconds in front of a panel of judges: Todd Knapp, CEO, Envision Technology Advisors; Ray Mathieu, CFO, InsureMyTrip; Sandra Tremblay, President, StormTree; and Kelly Ramirez, CEO, Social Enterprise Greenhouse. Judges focused on "the clarity and persuasiveness of the presentations," a press release on the event reports.
“Congratulations to each of the 39 people for being willing to stand in front of an audience of strangers to pitch their business idea," said event co-chair Anthony Mangiarelli, who is also a partner at KLR. "They and the standing-room-only audience learned a lot from the judges, who gave immediate feedback after each presentation.”
The contest took place at Tech Collective in Providence thanks in part to the sponsorship of KLR, Hinckley Allen, Envision Technology, Sprout Coworking and Integrated Media Group.
