Once again, Georgetown University entrepreneurs impressed Ted Leonsis at the school’s Bark Tank pitch competition. And once again, the Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO and founder put some bonus prize money into the pot.
The Georgetown alum added $50,000 to the $100,000 Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship award that was ultimately distributed to all eight companies participating, “so that everyone sees something to keep them going, and to be honest, for you also to be able to say you won a prize,” Leonsis said at the event.
“Learn how to leverage that, because it becomes really, really important, because what we’re giving you isn’t enough,” he said, “but having the imprimatur of saying... you won a prize and now you can go and apply and try to get additional dollars.”
The move brought a hint of déjà vu from the 2020 event, when Leonsis gifted another $55,000 to get more funding to the school’s homegrown businesses. And the push for greater support to early-stage, diverse startups — with increased interest in social impact investing — continues.
The annual contest, its name an allusion to university mascot Jack the Bulldog and the ABC reality show “Shark Tank,” is part of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative within the university’s McDonough School of Business.
This year, judges included Leonsis, who is also founder and partner of Revolution Growth; Christy Felix, senior associate at State Street Corp. and founder of UHustle; Shavini Fernando, founder and CEO of OxiWear; Kelsey Lents, co-founder of Two Birds; Monica Dixon, chief administrative officer and president of external affairs for Monumental; Mina Faltas, founder and managing member of Washington Harbour Partners LP; Pete Markuson, chief financial officer of the Leonsis family office; and Osman Nur, associate at Revolution Growth.
“We’re coming out of a pandemic, we’re reopening the economy, I think now more than ever entrepreneurs are important,” Leonsis said to the audience at the contest. “We became a society that was dependent on the government, the government is the least entrepreneurial, least business-oriented organization imaginable — and the only way we’re going to get our way out of what’s happened is to grow, and the way we’ll grow is small businesses and entrepreneurial new startups.”
Here are the winners:
- Joylet: The baby gear rental startup took home $30,000 at the competition. The company, led by Alli Cavasino and Natalie Poston, both MBA candidates in Georgetown’s class of 2022, rents clothes and infant-related items for "a fraction of the cost" of purchasing them, according to their pitch. Joylet also recently earned the “early-stage winner” accolade and a $1,000 prize at the D.C. Startup Week pitch competition in October.
- Stafm Technologies: The company, which is developing a novel electric motor for cars, planes and other vehicles, also won $30,000 at the competition. Rory Brogan, on track to earn his MBA in 2022, leads the startup.
- Chow Corp.: This food-truck startup walked away with $25,000 for its year-old business that connects veterans and military spouses with culinary careers. Jordan Foley, Charles Magovern and Abi Quackenboss-Karpf lead the company.
- Compost’d: The company landed $25,000 for its in-home compost receptacle that connects its users with easy and equitable ways to dispose waste. Led by Gracey Owen in Georgetown’s undergraduate class of 2022, the venture also won the competition’s People’s Choice Award.
- Map-Collective Inc.: The clean-tech startup, which won $15,000 at Bark Tank, has a supply chain platform that lists carbon footprints of companies, governments and individuals. CEO Tara Gupta, a student in the McDonough School of Business class of 2022, is also one of our 25 Under 25 honorees of 2021.
- Daigon: The startup, which bills itself as a platform for structured amateur esports, also won $15,000 at the competition. DIAGON is a tool for players of the League of Legends game, built to address the negative mental health effects associated with playing by tracking success and offering weekly training games to foster healthy competition. It’s led by Elliot Mack, an undergraduate in the university’s school of foreign service class of 2022.
- Bibti: The peer safety app, which connects women so they can walk together to minimize the risk of sexual harassment, won $5,000 in prize money. The company is led by Emily Owen, Max Zhang and Shirley Hu.
- Bellavent: The company also scored $5,000 for its platform, a two-sided marketplace where couples seek help as they plan their weddings, and where vendors can also submit proposals. It’s led by Bek Akhmedov, Kenny Gabel and Chike Nwankwo.
