Recapping StartEngine’s First Pitch Competition with Mr. Wonderful

Recapping StartEngine’s First Pitch Competition with Mr. Wonderful

On Friday September, 25th, we hosted our first-ever pitch competition with renowned businessman and Shark Kevin O’Leary, aka “Mr. Wonderful.” 5 founders each had 5 minutes to pitch their business to Mr. Wonderful for a chance to win a $10K grant.

Watch the highlights:

1,280 attendees tuned in to watch the pitch live and watched a variety of companies, including:

• iPill Dispenser – a solution for opioids public policy. iPill is a digital health hardware innovation that helps improve prescription adherence and safety by dispensing opioid pills per the user’s prescription, reducing their ability to abuse the substance or disperse unused medication.
• GoSun – consumer solar appliances. GoSun produces a variety solar-powered appliances, from coolers to chargers to water purifiers.
• PillowSheets – redefining lifestyle bedding. PillowSheets offers patented integrated pillow systems built within fitted sheets, so that you can sleep with more comfort than ever before.
• lifebrand – protecting your social media presence. lifebrand’s AI system can detect potentially harmful posts from their client’s past and present and help them improve their brand on social media.
• Farmbox Foods – vertical hydroponic farms. Farmbox Foods builds hydroponic farms in shipping containers that can be deployed and utilized worldwide.

All 5 companies made compelling pitches, but ultimately only one could win the $10K first prize. After some deliberation, Mr. Wonderful made his choice.

Congratulations to lifebrand for winning the competition and taking home the $10K prize!

As Kevin put it to the founder of lifebrand’s founder Thomas Colaiezzi, “your presentation had the three attributes that I think that everybody should learn from. 1) Can you explain to me in 90 seconds exactly what you do? You nailed that. 2) Why are you the right person to execute this business plan, why would your team be able to do it, and how can you accelerate and beat your competitors? You nailed that. And what I loved about your presentation that I tell everyone that pitches me is, ‘know your numbers!’”

Congratulations to GoSun as well, who took home $2.5K for being the crowd’s favorite pitch.

We’re thrilled with how well this first competition went, and if you’d like to submit an application to pitch at our next competition (date TBD), submit your application here! As a reminder, companies that are raising on StartEngine are not eligible to participate in the pitch competition.

Watch the full recording of the pitch competition below: