Pace Lubin

 

 
ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE EIGHTH ANNUAL PACE PITCH CONTEST
 
[First Place]   First Place: Candoo - John Robb and Peter Franceschini

Second Place: SpaceSplitter - Robert Caucci and Jeremy Pease

Third Place: Prof-Source - Henry Kusjanovic

  [Second Place]

The Eighth Annual Pace Pitch Contest

Presented by

The Entrepreneurship Lab

The Pace Pitch Contest is based on the Elevator Pitch concept, popular in the venture capital community. It is an extremely concise presentation of an entrepreneur's idea, business model, marketing strategy, competitive analysis, and financial plan, which is delivered to potential investors. The premise is that it could be made in a few minutes, should the entrepreneur spot a potential investor on an elevator and have the opportunity to pitch their idea during the brief ride.

Each Finalist will have exactly three minutes to pitch their new venture idea to a distinguished panel of judges and an enthusiastic audience. In addition to broad participation at Pace, we have been pleased to welcome student competitors from a number of other universities, including Columbia, Harvard, MIT, NYU, Princeton, and Stanford.

  • 5:00 - 6:00 Registration and Networking
  • 6:00 – 7:15 Finalists make their Pitch
  • 7:15 - 7:30 Break (Judging Panel selects the winning pitches in private)
  • 7:30 - 8:00 Awards Ceremony and Networking

First Prize

A $1,000 cash prize will be awarded to the winner. The prize money must be used to help build the Business presented at the Eighth Annual Pace Pitch Contest.

Second Prize

A $500 cash prize will be awarded to the second place. The prize money must be used to help build the Business presented at the Eighth Annual Pace Pitch Contest.

Third Prize

A $250 cash prize will be awarded to the third place. The prize money must be used to help build the Business presented at the Eighth Annual Pace Pitch Contest.

Additional prizes will be announced later.

Pace University reserves the right to disqualify, at its sole discretion, any individual or team from the competition at any time (before or after the Pitch Contest or the award of any prize) for any reason. Reasons for disqualification may include, but are not limited to, misrepresentations in the application process, plagiarism, infringement of the intellectual property of others, and any failure to comply with the rules of the competition. Disqualified individuals or teams shall forfeit any and all prizes awarded to them.

Caffeine

Executive Summary

Introduction
The specialty coffee industry has caught the interest of loyal followers in New York, as well as all over the country and world. For many people everyday, a cup of coffee is routine and effortless, but for Caffeine it will be educational and look great while doing so.

The Mission
Caffeine will thrive to educate, each customer on the extraordinary specialty coffee industry while introducing diverse beverages and their “pairings” to the caffeinated world. We will encourage consumers in New York City to reconsider their impact on the Earth and appreciate the world of coffee.

The Company and Services
Caffeine will be incorporated in the state of New York. It is owned and managed by Elyse Hinojosa. Miss. Elyse Hinojosa has extensive experience in the food and beverage industry such as sales, marketing, and management. The company intends to hire three full-time workers as well as five part-time baristas to handle customer service and day-to-day operations.

Products and Services
Caffeine offers a range of espresso and tea products; all from high quality Stumptown roasted coffee beans. Caffeine caters to each customer by providing every person with a perfect beverage or snack, every time. Fresh treats will be fully stocked at all times of operating business hours. There will be some staple items always available, plus additional seasonal and special treats in addition to an array of “pairable” treats from other countries that Americans are not typically served with their espresso or tea.

The Market
The retail coffee industry in the United Sates has experienced rapid growth. With New York's distinct four seasons, hot and cold beverages will be adjusted throughout the year. As Miss. Hinojosa discovers more delicious foreign items, more will be available at the location. Caffeine hopes to establish a large local customer attraction and therefore will also focus its marketing to nearby residents that will be a dominant target market. This will ensure healthy revenue to ensure stability of the business. Additionally, tourists who enjoy a quality coffee during their day will also be satisfied with the company's beverages available to account for approximately 15% of its revenue.

Financial Consideration
Caffeine expects to borrow $50,000 from SBA as a ten-year loan. Our projections for net sales are $100,000 Year 1, $175,000 Year 2, and $300,000 year 3. Also being associated with Stumptown, we have a large local market present.

For more information, please contact us at eh33123n@pace.edu or (631) 813-9049
 

Biography

[Elyse Hinojosa]

Elyse Hinojosa is committed to being energetic, and encouraging in everything she does. She has a passion for coffee dates and trying new blends of coffee or tea from other countries, and getting new ideas all around the city for her own company. She has worked for Starbucks Coffee from Newport Beach, California, to the Hamptons and City of New York. She is also involved in the health food industry, and spent her last year with a tea company that has broadened her horizon for what she will accomplish in her own coffee company opening upon graduation. Elyse is a Lubin student at Pace in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing, where she is very excited to venture into the beverage industry. Elyse is always modernizing the coffee shop standards and looks forward to her future.

 

 

 

Candoo

Executive Summary

The Candoo mobile application is an app developed to allow android tablets to assist the disabled and elderly by utilizing the tablet to its full potential. Candoo displays necessary information in a simple and aesthetically pleasing way, while omitting confusing navigation elements that make an unmodified tablet unusable by this demographic.

In order to increase the usability of the tablet for these demographics, we implemented many features to increase accessibility. The first feature we built into Candoo is aimed at making Candoo accessible throughout the user's mobile experience.

Rather than building an application that the user would have to manually launch from their device to be able to utilize all of the usability benefits of Candoo, we decided to make our app function as an Android launcher. Every time the device is turned on, or the user presses the home button from any other application or from within our application, they are brought back to the starting page of Candoo, which allows them to easily utilize the features and benefits of the application. But the most important feature we implemented is the alternate input capability that we were able to develop through voice input and recognition. Once voice recognition mode is enabled, users can navigate the application simply by touching anywhere on the screen to initiate voice recognition. They can then say what they wish to do and the app will respond dynamically to their requests, making navigation throughout the application, and entire tablet since Candoo functions as a launcher, possible for those without the fine motor functions necessary to tap specific buttons on the screens of devices.
We not only included voice input into Candoo, but also voice output. This can be used in conjunction with the voice input features to read options, email, or even text from web pages, back to the user. This voice input capability along with the voice output capability is available across every part of the Candoo application. Along with these assistive features we also added a few basic "applications" we built into Candoo specifically. These features include; a talk for me feature that provides voice output for the vocally impaired, an app that tracks daily medications and provides reminders, an easy to use email interface and finally a web browser designed specifically for usability. The combination of these applications alongside Candoo's usability features make Candoo what it is.

Biographies

[John Robb]

John Robb is a freshman from Pace University New York planning to double major in Communications and Art. He has been interested in Graphic design and Communications for years, where he has applied his skills in the classroom, in projects, and now in a mobile application. After this experience, John will go even further into studying and practicing design for other mobile applications.

 

 

 

[Peter Franceschini]

Peter Franceschini is a freshman majoring in Computer Science at Pace University in New York. He is interested in Application development, particularly for Android devices. He has previously designed various applications that have prepared him to compete in the Berkeley Mobile Challenge. Peter is interested in mobile device's untapped uses for improving the lives of the disabled.

 

 

 

 

Half Baked
Café/Bakery/Laundromat

Executive Summary

What we would like to do is open a Café/bakery with an emphasis on a relaxed environment in which people could come in and do work. We want to more than anything create a specific atmosphere, a ‘home away from home.' This will be the place locals come to work as an alternative to their homes, which can be very distracting and their jobs where people spend more than enough time already.

The bakery would go in the front of the establishment to generate business from the heavy foot traffic outside (see location). Who can walk past a bakery without their mouthwatering? Through the bakery will be the lounge. The lounge will be decorated and lit to promote reading/productivity. In the basement we would have coin operated laundry machines. This would be convenient for patrons who wish to do their laundry and don't like to wait or go somewhere while they do. They can grab some coffee, a lite snack or use our Wi-Fi. It would also add another revenue stream. As a side note we were thinking of maybe adding a beer garden in the backyard if the space permits. Beer gardens have become very popular in the past few years and alcoholic beverages have highest profit margin in the food service industry.

Differentiating factor

Many different businesses that complement each other (you can have a different experience each time based on many draws, go there for productivity one day and meet with friends for a drink the next). Running a bakery is 24-hour operation. To make fresh food for the next day they often stay open throughout the night to bake/prepare. We can use this to our advantage to attract late night business with a small amount of extra overhead.As popular as big corporations may be, they have fallen out of favor with many in recent times. There has been a push for more independently owned businesses lately, this can be seen if you look at the slow movement and Occupy Wall Street. We will use farm to table tactics, which is a rapidly growing trend in food service.

Target

Students always have work to get done. According to a study done by The Chronicle of Higher Education: "gate counts and circulation of traditional materials are falling at many college libraries across the country, as students find new study spaces in dorm rooms or apartments, coffee shops, or nearby bookstores. Young professionals have the disposable income to buy gourmet items.

Location

NYC metro area. Coffee usage increases with household income, 70% of Americans with that make over 150,000$ drink coffee compared to 54% that make under 25,000$, median household income in area is $100,000.

Biographies
 

[Daniel Gilbert]

My name is Daniel Gilbert. I am a full time student at Pace University's Lubin school of Business. I am a junior with an expected graduation date in the spring of 2013. Since I was young I have been fascinated with business. I solidified my decision of making entrepreneurship my career in high school. I joined the Academy of Finance and started taking comprehensive business courses. By the time I graduated I was Vice President of the Academy. After graduation I took the Financial Literacy Challenge administered by the US Dept. of the Treasury and scored in the top one percentile. Around 75,000 students took the exam that year.

As I have gone about my college journey I find more things about entrepreneurship that draw me in. Having the opportunity to positively change entire industries is very exciting. Being able to potentially help people and improve lives is another reason I feel this fits me. There is room for a lot of growth in this world and it takes innovative thinkers

The prospect of being able to run my own business is very electrifying and is something I've always dreamed about.

[Brandon Stryker]

My name is Brandon Stryker. I am currently a full time student at Baruch College. I am studying business management because I intend to own and operate one or many businesses of my own one day. I am coming up on the end of my first year at Baruch, my third year in college. When I began my college career, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to study. Over winter break of my first year I broke my head and was in a coma for a few days and proceeded to perform terribly the next semester after ignoring my doctor's recommendation to take a semester off. After that semester, I decided to get my act together and put in the effort I could have and should have been exerting since high school. I realized that I had many business ideas that were quite legitimate and had a real chance of succeeding and a few close friends who would work with me and vice versa. I currently have a few that I'm working on and I think the Pace Pitch Contest will be excellent real world pitching experience that will help me in the long run win or lose.

[Shaun Wundrack]

My name is Shaun Wundrack. I'm currently enrolled as a full time undergraduate student at Pace University. I am studying finance at Pace University's Lubin school of business and am expecting to graduate in 2013. Throughout my last high school years I was part of the Academy of Finance. While in the academy I found my admiration for business. I started and ran a fundraiser after school selling pizza for the Academy. This is when I discovered I wanted to work in the business world. Later becoming the president of the Academy of Finance 2009 class. That year I was also treasurer of National Honor's society. Since then I have furthered my education and interest in business by working towards my bachelors of finance. I find myself most interested in the analysis of stocks and other future securities. I would also like to further my knowledge in adventure capitalism and hedge funds. I also intern at a technology-staffing firm located in downtown Manhattan. I look forward to my future business endeavors, experiences and lessons.

MyCollegeLounge

Executive Summary

On June 2011, Mac Exume founded MyCollegeLounge, which was formed as an entity of Exume Marketing LLC, headquartered in the State of New York. MyCollegeLounge is a progressive marketing channel for colleges and their students. The MyCollegeLounge service operates as a college events network, linking students to their respective schools, other universities, and like-minded students within their area. As social media becomes a stronger channel of obtaining information, colleges and universities are looking for a dynamic way of continuing to build awareness of their brand with current and prospective students. Leveraging MyCollegeLounge; students, alumni and faculty will have the ability to easily find and promote events that are being sponsored by their respective institutions - all on one platform. Our partnership with colleges and universities will give the institutions the ability to brand each event page that is associated with their school - enabling the university to maximize their marketing strategy while enhancing the college experience of their community.

The Market

With over 20 million students and 6,000 colleges nationwide, the higher education market is estimated at being over $400 billion. The institution size that will be serviced includes small to large institutions. The population of college and university students have been steadily growing year over year. With more people attending 2-year institutions, community/junior colleges have the fastest enrollment growth rates in the higher education industry but are also the most underserved college brands in the social networks.

Service Offerings

MyCollegeLounge provides higher educational institutions with a new progressive channel of advancing their brand online and ultimately becoming more dominant in social media while servicing their communities through events. Through MyCollegeLounge, students and alumni now have an easy and dynamic way of promoting student life and campus related events/activities in their area. This service will also provide the ability for students to network with local colleges and universities, their students, and alumni—adding more value to their college experience. Finding and general posting of events on MyCollegeLounge is free which will drive faster adoption rates in the market. Partnering universities will receive branded event pages for a monthly charge. Services can be scaled up to meet the needs of our customers.

Competitive Edge

MyCollegeLounge is the first events network to focus on the higher education industry. There are other companies that offer similar services, but none specialize in servicing this specific niche. Not only has MyCollegeLounge identified the difficulties that universities and students face within social networks-we've also provided the solution.

Financials

MyCollegeLounge requires an initial funding of $60,000 in Y1 to create the technology platform, website, marketing and operational costs. We need an additional investment of $60,000 in Y2 and Y3 to continue operations. We expect MyCollegeLounge to start with a low penetration in the first year but grow quickly with at least a 100% adoption rate as awareness grows about the service.

 

Biography

[Mac Excume]

Mac Exumé is the Founder & CEO of MyCollegeLounge, a company that enables college students and alum to find and promote college related events in their area.

He began his career as a sales rep, going door to door, selling very expensive kitchen cutlery (another way of saying fancy knives). Mac held many roles within many companies, ranging from being a residential counselor at a non-profit organization, dedicated to serve people with developmental disabilities to being responsible for a Fortune 500 company's analytics program.

Mac is a self-proclaimed technology junky, loves having a good time and had way too much fun in college. Take those three things, shake them up and you have the birth of MyCollegeLounge.

 

 

Prof-Source

Executive Summary

Prof-source intends to be a provider of coursepacks and course materials for the post-secondary education market. It will help professors who have trouble finding suitable class material outside of textbooks by allowing all members to share, comment, and rate the sources that they use. Prof-source is unique from other coursepack providers in that it is designed as a community of professors collaborating on the best sources to use in class. Ratings assigned to the many different sources used by professors will provide a competitive advantage over other players in the digital textbook market that are offering traditional textbooks in digital form with no feedback.

Textbook costs are astronomical and coursepacks deliver higher quality content for a much lower price. Average professors generally do not have the confidence to create their own coursepacks because they do not know the best sources available. Professors at prestigious universities use coursepacks more often because they are familiar with the best literature. Sharing this knowledge provides great material at low prices for all.

Prof-source solves this problem by allowing members to rate their favorite course materials highly and share these ratings with the community. Sources that get the best results, and those used in coursepacks by the most professors, will rise to the top of search results when professors search for sources for their own coursepack. The ability to see sources with ratings and comments used by other professors will make it more likely for professors to use coursepacks on a large scale.

The target market is professors of post-secondary education. The U.S. market for textbooks in higher- education is $10 billion-a-year with approximately 3% growth, 60% percent of the money is spent in bookstores and 40% online. Prof-source plans to increase the use of coursepacks by professors dramatically and capture as much of this market as possible by offering a less expensive and higher quality substitute for textbooks.

The most important metric will be the number of professors who sign up to prof-source.com and assign coursepacks to their class. The more professors on the network the more valuable it will be for all users. Although professors select the material to be purchased, the students will have to log on to prof-source to pay for and download their coursepack. Each coursepack sold will bring in $25-$35 revenue and $8 profit, a margin of 32%-22% respectively. The profit consists of an industry standard $5 fee for compiling and distributing the coursepack and an industry standard 17% markup on licensing fees which we state conservatively at $3 because some sources do not require licensing fees. A national average of approximately 30 students per class and 3 classes taught per professor amounts to $240 profit per class or $720 profit per professor. The goal is to acquire 100 professors in the first semester amounting to $72,000 profit. With 1,000 professors using prof-source the second year profit will amount to $720,000. There are 594,000 university students in New York City which would amount to $14,256,000 profit if they all bought one coursepack for each of their three classes. There are currently 1.54 million post-secondary professors in the U.S., if they all used coursepacks for 3 classes of 30 students profit would amount to $1.1 billion. Prof-source intends to be the premier coursepack provider to professors and students in the US with intentions to expand internationally. The founder is a JD/MBA student who runs a family jewelry business with his father.

Seeking $100,000 for a 10% stake.
 

Biography

[Vishnu Murthy]

Henry Kusjanovic was originally a student at Pace Law School before enrolling in Lubin to study entrepreneurship. Prior to graduate school Henry helped run his family jewelry business while working as a real estate agent in Manhattan. The concept for prof-source came as a response to the high costs for textbooks. Students are required to pay over $500 a semester for textbooks and often times they are not even used throughout the semester. After some research he now believes that digital coursepacks will be the future for academic course material and that prof-source will be the way to spread the best sources to all students of post-secondary education.

 

 

Schugu

Executive Summary

Schugu Network is a start-up limited liability company that integrates online social service with mobile GPS function to provide instant information on social events. The technology development will focus on iPhone users around the world.

Business Mechanics

3 Types of Target Audience:
1. Artists
2. Event Goers
3. Small Business (pub, bars, restaurants, hotels etc.)

Costs & Profits

Charge per download: $0.00
Charge of posting 1 event: $0.99
Development Costs: $20,000
Target Size: 20,000 Unique Audiences (first quarter of introduction)
Breakeven Point: 6.8 (months)

Platform Capability & Uses

Users can post one picture and some description to present its events.
Users can our Schugu App with the GPS of its mobile to discover events nearby.
Users can use our search engine to find events in different locations.
Users can use their preferences option to filter events nearby automatically.

Market Size & Company's Expectation

US: 98% Internet users in the US uses social network platform, oven 50% of them are Schugu’s target customers. That is a total of 155.80 million are within this range.

Worldwide: the annual growth rate of social media sector is approximately 43.25% with 432 million unique audiences worldwide.

 

Schugu Network will continue the development of its iPhone App. In the near future, Schugu App will be capable to execute ticket selling/buying functions.

Biography

[Jin He]

Jin He is a Co-Founder and the web developer at Schugu Network; his responsibility is to develop software that helps improve social interaction quality. Jin is currently a Pace University sophomore with double degrees in Mathematics and Economics, and a side focus on Game Theory Mechanism Design. Since 2010, Jin, along with his partner Luis, has been constructing their business venture into the entertainment industrial.

 

 

SpaceSplitter

Executive Summary

SpaceSplitter is forever changing the way roommates manage their household finances and their relationships. SpaceSplitter is a platform that helps roommates seamlessly and fairly split bills and make monthly payments. Furthermore, 'OurList' provides roommates with the most efficient and cost-effective way to collaboratively procure the products they collaboratively consume. 'OurList' allows users to create recurring digital shopping lists of the products they collaboratively consume (i.e. groceries, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.), and e-commerce partners such as Soap.com help to fulfill these orders every month while SpaceSplitter splits the cost of these orders fairly on the back end. There are over 32 million roommates in the United States, and these individuals collaboratively consume over $28 billion worth of products each year - excluding rent and utility costs! Roommates in America also transact over 860 million times annually when it comes to rent and utility bill payment alone. In consideration of SpaceSplitter's revenue model, all of this presents the company with a $5.2 billion opportunity. Over 1.6 million of these roommates can be found in New York City which is respectively our largest regional market weighing in at around $270 million.

In looking at roommates as customers, it's important to understand that the average person has roommates from 18-30 years old, and in that 12 year lifetime, they typically have 5 unique "roommate relationships". SpaceSplitter segments its customers into the following three groups: College students, young professionals, and the parents who subsidize the cost of living for their dependents (i.e. students). We then sub-segment our student segment into the following three categories: Students living on-campus, students living off- campus, and fraternity and sorority houses. Fraternity and sorority houses are early adopters since roommate problems tend to be exacerbated in these situations. Furthermore, parents control approximately 35% of our market's purchasing power, and SpaceSplitter is able to offer these parents the value proposition of a transparent use of funds.

The point of sale for SpaceSplitter is at the beginning of the "roommate relationship". So, at lease signing, the day you find a roommate, or the day you move into the dorms. Understanding this, SpaceSplitter has already started to build out a defensible Affiliate Network that will generate millions of highly qualified leads each year. The three affiliate groups that SpaceSplitter is focusing on are roommate- matching services, real estate brokers, and residential property managers. SpaceSplitter has secured relationships with five of the largest roommate-matching services that match over 300k roommates annually. A second user acquisition strategy focuses on partnering with schools to reduce roommate conflicts on campus, and the firm currently has over 10 schools in an interactive pipeline with 2 committed to using SpaceSplitter for the upcoming academic year. This strategy allows the company to capture roommates at the beginning of the "lifetime" with a CPA of $4.75.

SpaceSplitter's platform is free for users, but the company generates revenue when the following two mechanisms are triggered: 1) Transactions take place on the platform (i.e. rent and utility bill payment) and 2) Roommates purchase the products that they collaboratively consume via OurList. SpaceSplitter charges a fixed fee ($2.99-$5.99) for facilitating monthly bill payments. The company also earns a 5%-12% commission on all of the products it sells for affiliates such as Soap.com. SpaceSplitter is really a big play on the collaborative consumption of roommates. The average SpaceSplitter “customer” has a lifetime value of $1,050 with a CPA of $9.

While there are several payment solutions in the marketplace (i.e. WePay, PayPal, Venmo, etc.), SpaceSplitter is differentiated as a product, and the company's user acquisition strategies allow them to maintain a sustainable, competitive advantage. 'OurList' is a key differentiator for SpaceSplitter as it will lead to the elimination of "roommate debt" entirely. While our competitors focus on making it easier for people to pay each other back, SpaceSplitter is focused on preventing people from owing money to begin with!

Founders Jeremy Pease and Rob Caucci met over three years ago as Resident Advisors in the Residential Life Department at Pace University. They started Reslutions Inc. (www.reslutions.com) to start solving the problems they were experiencing as RAs, and they’ve bootstrapped Reslutions to very modest profitability. Reslutions led the duo to launch The Roommate Project (www.theroommateproject.org), eHarmony for roommates, and they currently have a private beta with over 985 users.

Biographies
 

[Rob Caucci]

Rob Caucci is an innovator that has thoroughly enjoyed his experiences as an intrapraneur and entrepreneur. Mr. Caucci's curiosity, passion, and expertise lie at the intersection of innovation, business strategy, and technology. Rob is a management consultant within Booz Allen Hamilton's Strategic Technology and Innovation (ST&i) capability, and he is one of forty people helping the firm re-enter the commercial consulting space. Before strategy consulting, Rob worked in Business Development, Sales & Marketing, and Information Systems roles at startups and Fortune 500 companies alike. Rob first applied the principles of entrepreneurship when he launched, Effin' Textbooks, the Kayak.com for books, in 2009. He then embarked on an entrepreneurial journey with Jeremy Pease, a fellow Resident Advisor. After pivoting from Reslutions, to the Match.com for roommates (TheRoommateProject.org), Jeremy and Rob are now focusing on SpaceSplitter.
Mr. Caucci is also a Workshop Coordinator for Lean Startup Machine, and in this capacity, he hosts educational workshop where entrepreneurs and innovators learn how to build the products their customers want. Rob is an active member and huge supporter of NYC’s thriving startup ecosystem, and he is proud to call 'Silicon Alley' home. Rob studied Entrepreneurship, Business Economics, and Marketing at Pace University.

[Jeremy Pease]

Jeremy Pease is a senior at Pace University graduating in May with a B.S. in Computer Science. With his expertise in web development, he has created multiple websites for both individuals and companies. Jeremy is also Executive Director of Seidenberg Creative Labs where he manages a team of undergraduate and graduate developers. Jeremy has been involved with Residential Life as a Desk Attendant, a Resident Advisor, a Senior Resident Advisor, and a Theme Floor Resident Advisor. Throughout his experience he saw the need for better technology in Student Affairs. In 2009 Jeremy started his first company, Reslutions Inc., with Robert Caucci, building a web based platform for college housing departments. The Roommate Project was spawned by Reslutions, and this allowed the duo to offer a compatibility-based roommate matching service. Jeremy and Rob’s most recent and exciting company, SpaceSplitter, will be the first ever Roommate Relationship Management (RRM) system. This system includes a payment solution uniquely crafted to help roommates split costs. Jeremy isn’t a geek all of the time, he also rides motorcycles, tap dances, and is a long distance runner

Venturoo Inc.

Executive Summary

Introduction

Venturoo Inc is a social research platform that aggregates available information on private companies. In a time when private companies are being increasingly seen as appeasing investments, company fundamentals are becoming harder to obtain as asymmetric information floods the market. By integrating social components as well as proprietary research tools, Venturoo hopes to satisfy the need for information on these companies.

Problem

Investors do not know enough about the companies they are investing in. The rigorous process of screening and collecting reliable information about private companies can be very difficult as well as time consuming. The underlying difficulty arises from the lack of transparency as well as asymmetrical information presented when making investment decisions.

Solution

Venturoo screens and collects reliable information about private companies. By streamlining the process of sourcing and confirming information on private companies, Venturoo reduces asymmetry in the markets for these companies, thereby making the market more efficient. Furthermore, Venturoo provides a social platform were investors and startups can meet and communicate as well as see what’s going on with their competition.

Market

Direct competitors with differentiated products include PrivCo, VC Experts, CB Insights, Dun & Bradstreet and CapLinked. Potential indirect competitors include Capital IQ, FactSet and Dow Jones VenturSource. Our competitive advantage is our ability to execute and iterate rapidly to meet the needs of clients. We plan to begin operating on a project basis for investors and will hope to build up a database through repetition of this process. We're an agile team with a diverse finance/technology background. Evidence of our competitive advantage is that we began web development in October of 2011 and immediately released a working prototype (alpha version) to early users in December of 2011. The potential barriers to entry include a lack of capital to support data aggregation and database integrity expectations of clients.

Opportunity

On April 5, 2012 President Obama signed the J.O.B.S. Act. The bill makes it easier for startups to raise money, to stay private when they need to and to go public when the time is right. Overall, it promotes a pro-entrepreneurship agenda through its crowdfunding provision. The Venturoo team plans to immediately capitalize on this opportunity.

Innovation

We are currently working with an engineering student from Columbia to create an innovative algorithm that will allow us to obtain and organize information on private companies very quickly. Also, we have ideas that we immediately plan to integrate in order to get the public involved in our platform as well. We hope to build up a reputation as an information source to the public because we believe that there will be a boom in public investment in private companies.

Biographies
 

[Shane Sethi]

I am Shane Sethi, currently a junior at Pace University studying finance with a minor in economics graduating in May of 2013. During my time at Pace I have interned at VTrader which is an options trading firm where I initially gained a fond interest for the financial markets as well as the different instruments available to market participants. I am currently interning at Ogilvy & Mather in their finance department, working with clients such as IBM, Ikea, and Coca-Cola. This summer I will be joining Wells Fargo Securities in their asset backed finance division. My education, work experience and the people that I surrounded myself with here at Pace led me into entrepreneurship. I co-founded the Institute of Management Accountants student chapter at Pace University and I am currently serving as the Vice President. By doing an internship with the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and working with a startup called Centzy I was able to gain great insight into startups. Shortly after this experience I started to work on Venturoo with my friends from Pace University.

[Steven Zaslavsky]

I am Steven Zaslavsky, currently a junior at Pace University majoring in Finance with double minors in economics; management and will graduate in May of 2013. During my time at Pace I have interned in leverage finance at Allied Irish Bank, wealth management at Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, and I am currently an underwriting intern for Medallion Financial Group: a specialty finance company that specializes in financing the purchases and sales of taxi medallions. This summer I will be a summer analyst at Morgan Stanley under the hedge fund services division. I am entrepreneurial and have co-founded the Institute of Management Accountants student chapter at Pace University and served as the treasurer for one semester. I interned at an startup incubator this past summer called Entrepreneur Roundtable Accelerator and worked with the startup Centzy along with my friends from Pace. We learned a lot and became inspired to startup our own company after many hours of debate and brainstorming. I am excited to participate in the Pace Pitch contest because I want to see the feedback our idea gets.

 

Matthew Brown, Co-Founder, Emergent Properties Inc.
Brett Dovman, Founder, Panelfly Inc.
Rumit Mehta, Founder, Immersion Journeys
Sara Shikhman, President, BedroomFurnitureDiscounts.com

Matthew Brown - Co-Founder, Emergent Properties Inc.

[Matthew Brown]

Matthew Brown is Co-Founder of Emergent Properties Inc. and developer of LogCheck, the mobile app that fixes dysfunctional building maintenance. Previously, Matthew served as a Performance Assurance Engineer at Johnson Controls where he measured the savings in Energy Performance Contracts and provided efficiency consultation to over 100 buildings. He also currently teaches energy efficiency to building operators at the Local 32BJ Union.

His past work experience includes GE Energy and Goodrich Aerospace, where he worked on gas turbines and turbine powertrains, respectively. In graduate school, he co-taught a year-long capstone course in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. His graduate research focused on optimizing the design of small wind turbines to maximize energy production. He later worked for startup Warner Energy, where he managed the product development of a 2.5 kW small wind turbine system.

Matthew received both his BS in Aeronautical Engineering and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY. He pursued an MBA in Entrepreneurial Studies at Pace University and shortly thereafter was inspired to work full-time on his current venture.

Brett Dovman - Founder, Panelfly Inc.

[Brett Dovman]

Brett is an innovative and highly talented digital media entrepreneur with experience in mobile software and entertainment. He is the Founder and Head of Operations of Panelfly Inc., a company he started in 2008 with two friends while studying for his MBA at Pace University. Panelfly is a leader in creating the ultimate digital fan experience. Dubbed SuperMedia, our unique transmedia storytelling approach, coupled with deep content discovery and social interactivity, Panelfly takes traditional on-screen experiences to a whole new level. Beyond the Internet, we are driven to deliver the world’s most immersive, interactive digital fanfest, whether at home or on the go.

Prior to starting Panelfly, Brett spent time with Telemetry Investments, where he focused on distressed mortgage assets. Brett received an MBA from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University.

Rumit Mehta - Founder, Immersion Journeys

[Rumit Mehta]

Born in Kenya of Indian descent & raised in Tanzania, Rumit Mehta has a love for Africa that is unmatched. Despite living in the urban jungle of New York City, he still manages to return to Africa and India both for family visits and by request from many of his clients. Rumit grew up leading safaris for friends and colleagues where he refined his keen wildlife spotting skills in the bush.

Trained as an architect with a degree from the Savannah College of Art & Design, Rumit worked in the design and construction industry for 13 years. After moving to New York, he obtained his MBA in International Business (Lubin '03) and re-entered the architectural design and construction industry. This included several years administering a multi-million dollar capital improvement program at the Wildlife Conservation Society (Bronx Zoo, NY Aquarium etc). By then he was dabbling in travel planning for select luxury clients to Africa and India. Very soon, the travel bug caught on and after much deliberation he decided to do it on a full time basis as it was more exciting than visiting muddy construction sites.

An avid thrill seeker, Rumit plays a pivotal role in developing custom itineraries for luxury and academic clients including Pace University, Harvard Business School, Babson College, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern Law School and Columbia Business School. Immersion Journeys leverages a wealth of knowledge and professional networks in both Africa and South Asia to design complex itineraries. With his deep knowledge of the hospitality industry, he is frequently invited as a guest speaker at trade trade and academic forums. Rumit is also Vice President of the Association of the Promotion of Tourism in Africa (APTA) - Northeast Chapter.

Immersion Journeys is also the 2010 & 2011 Tanzania Tour Operator of the Year awarded by the Tanzania Tourist Board.

Sara Shikhman - President, BedroomFurnitureDiscounts.com

[Sara Shikhman]

Sara Shikhman is the President of BedroomFurnitureDiscounts.com, a leading online retailer of home furnishings in New York. Under Sara's leadership Bedroom Furniture Discounts was able to turn a $20,000 investment into nearly $10 million in revenue despite being 576th to market. Sara earned her B.B.A. in Finance from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University and her law degree from University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prior to Bedroom Furniture Discounts Sara taught Business Law at Pace University, was a portfolio manager at Deutsche Asset Management and practiced corporate law at a top law firm in New York. In her spare time, Sara enjoys traveling, tennis and writing. Sara is a board member of the University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni board and the Lubin School of Business Alumni Board.

 

 


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For additional information, please contact

Bruce Bachenheimer,

Clinical Professor and Director of Entrepreneurship @ Lubin:
Tel: (212) 618-6663
Fax: (212) 618-6664
E-mail: bbachenheimer@pace.edu
Web: webpage.pace.edu/bbachenheimer
Address: Pace University
Lubin School of Business
Department of Management, Room 342
163 William Street
New York, NY 10038

Nikhil Kalyankar, Associate Director of Entrepreneurship Lab:
Tel: (212) 618-6667
E-mail: nkalyankar@pace.edu
Address: Pace University
163 William Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10038
 

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