A crowdfunding website for medical research and two physical products were winners in the second Lehigh Valley Startup Weekend, held Nov. 15-17 at Ben Franklin Tech Ventures on the Lehigh University campus.
Sponsored by the university’s Baker Insitute of Entrepreneurship, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley Tech, the weekend attracted about 70 participants who gave 26 pitches on Friday night, according to organizer Anthony Durante. Nine of them were chosen to be developed by teams that formed early in the weekend, and on Sunday evening the team leaders made their presentations.
The top winner was ImPatient, the brainchild of Rosamond Deegan; her team won over $12,000 worth of consulting and other services, as well as the chance to compete in the BFTV Venture Idol on Nov. 21.
In her presentation, Deegan explained how the website, based on the Kickstarter model and funded by donations of $25 minimum (similar to online loan platform Kiva), would allow people involved with specific diseases or conditions to fund research for these directly instead of through medical charities.
The judges said they chose ImPatient because of the team’s expertise in the medical and venture capital fields, and their familiarity with the marketplace.
Deegan, a native of England now living in West Chester, said the eight team members have agreed to continue working together, and will go ahead with developing the company.
“We’re trying to change the world,” she said.
In an informal voting session earlier that evening, ImPatient was also the audience favorite.
Second place, including $5,935 worth of services, went to Steadfast, a device to stabilize the GoPro cameras used to film extreme sports. Shakiness is a problem with the videos produced by these cameras, since they are attached to participants’ helmets or bikes.
Zachary Rambo, a downhill mountain biker from Sellersville, said he almost didn’t pitch the idea Friday night, but wound up making a prototype over the 54-hour weekend. He and his teammates will continue to work on this, he said.
The two top winners will have the opportunity to participate in Global Startup Battle, a world-wide competition among winners of Startup Weekends in 198 locations, according to facilitator Ryan Sullivan.
The third place went to another product, TherMOMitor, a wearable thermometer which monitors body temperature over time and records it. It can be used for babies and young children, or for women with infertility issues, said team leader Ben Cohen. The team won $5,225 in services.
The other presentations included Driven, an app used to gamify the daily driving habits of teens to help eliminate texting while driving, among other things (team leaders Dan Pelberg and Dan Thareja); iCheckIn, an app that helps teens and others to check in periodically with their families (Jason Lotito); Import Chief, a website matching smaller clothing designers with manufacturers in China (Cassie Tian and Brian Reichert); LinkNext, an app for meeting professionals and networking (Raj Nukala); Sideburns Books, a service for digital book conversion (Mike Dworski); and Trenday, an app to help women assemble outfits and keep track of what clothing they own (Erika Petrozelli and John Vaughn).
Rita J. Chesterton, the co-founder and CEO of skaffl, llc., the top winner of the 2012 Lehigh Valley Startup Weekend, whose company is now a Ben Franklin company and getting ready to launch its apps for the mobile classroom, gave the keynote address Friday night.
Judges for the event were Gabriel Alvarez-Jacobo, New York Managing Partner, Think Creative USA; Wayne Barz, manager, Entrepreneurial Services, Ben Franklin Technology Partners; and Marc deVinck, Dexter F. Baker Professor of Practice in Creativity, Lehigh University.
SUSAN L. PENA is a freelance writer in Berks County who has covered business, development and the arts for more than two decades. Send feedback here.