Startup Maryland (www.startupmd.org) today announced the Great two top Finalists from the 2014 Pitch Across Maryland celebration.
After qualifying and posting more than 150 video pitches from Maryland entrepreneurs that were captured during the three-week Pitch Across Maryland tour | celebration, Startup Maryland is proud to announce Vheda Health (Howard County/MCE) and BrinkBit (uBalt, ETC, EAGB, GBC) as Winner and Runner-up, respectively.
The winners were distilled by two separate review panels of serial entrepreneurs, investors and economic development officers over two months and two rounds of judging. Eight finalists presented their ventures and opportunities during the final afternoon session at the 2014 TEDCO Entrepreneur Expo – held November 12 in Elkridge, MD.
“The first round judges voiced considerable angst trying to winnow the Pitch Across Maryland field to 8 Finalists and the quality of the pitches at the Expo reveled exactly why that task was so difficult. The diversity of industries and innovations is quite a testament to why Maryland is an early-stage venture powerhouse,” stated Michael Binko, Founder | president of Startup Maryland. “We are now seriously thinking about expanding the finalist field to 16 or 32 companies next year.”
As Winner and Runner-up, Vheda Health and BrinkBit are now catapulted into the second round of Maryland DBED’s InvesMaryland Challenge – a startup pitch competition with more than $1million in early stage investment and prizes awarded to high growth potential ventures. Their entry fees are waived and both companies bi-pass the hotly-contested first round of reviewing given the fact that they have already been thoroughly vetted after the grueling two months of scrutiny during the Pitch Across Maryland. They also receive $2000 worth of monthly cloud hosting from Rackspace – a corporate sponsor of the Pitch Across Maryland.
Active equity investors and members of the media are invited to view all Pitch Across Maryland videos here and contact the Startup Maryland team to learn more about the innovations and entrepreneurs building great companies in Maryland and across the broader Mid-Atlantic region.
In the coming months, Startup Maryland will be kicking off its annual Raise Your Game bootcamp for Entrepreneurs. Under this program, early stage company founders learn directly from successful entrepreneur peers on 6 topics that every startup founder needs to understand in order to inflect their venture. Watch for more details and timing for this year’s bootcamp.
About Startup Maryland:
Startup Maryland (www.startupmd.org) is a regions initiative launched out of the Startup America Partnership (now UPGlobal, www.up.co). Driven from within the community and led by entrepreneurs Startup Maryland strives to remain nimble and inclusive. Startup Maryland works to connect innovation communities and rallies entrepreneurs, supporters and other innovation stakeholders around four main initiatives: Connection, Celebration, Coaching, and Capital
while also bringing together entrepreneurs in a community of support to drive greater economic outcomes.
