This final 5 Across event of 2011 was a great success (see www.5across.org).

The 5 pitches were the winners from all the previous events:

Shawn Campbell pitched iJonze, which is a real time, location based, on demand advertising/get the work out engine. iJonze provides businesses with the latest in technology to help them drive customers to there location and give them a very inexpensive way to do so. For the end user, they provide free web and mobile apps that allow them to find out what is actively happening in their area.

Michael A. Hartman presented Frogdice, which is a local developer of online computer games that utilize the Free-to-Play business model. Frogdice recently released its new Coin ‘n Carry game which is quickly being adopted by both the company’s current loyal customers, as well as many new players. The company has an additional six games in the development pipeline.

Eric Hartman pitched the ACLerator which is a physical therapy device for the sports medicine / rehabilitation market. The device is intended for muscle strengthening during post-surgical knee immobilization following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction (ACLR) or Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA).

Evan Leach and Scott Wagner presented a mobile application called Crowded. This free application uses live interactive play prediction and trivia at baseball games to test the knowledge of competing viewers. Players are awarded accolades and offered the incentive of prizes for top scores, which will be tied into stadium concessions and prizes. The user interface allows fans of all ages and sports knowledge to play, while effectively delivering advertisements for team and stadium sponsors.

Anthony Pistilli, with Phoenix Global Designs, pitched the Guardian Ace technology, which does wireless real time location of assets including the management, monitoring infrastructure through a database. Presently focused on health care industry. This system will manage their equipment, provide location and allocation information, and in the process of providing this visibility, will discourage theft through alerting mechanisms in the system.

The audience winner (decided via text message) was Michael Hartman with Frogdice. The overall completion winner decided by the judges was Anthony Pistilli with Phoenix Global Designs. The company was awarded a cash prize of $3,500.

The 5 Across completion is sponsored by the Lexington Venture Club with financial support provided by the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership, which is comprised of Commerce Lexington, the Lexington Urban County Government and the University of Kentucky.

In keeping with the theme of Global Entrepreneurship Week, which was November 14-20^th (GEW), the November meeting of the Lexington Venture Club hosted three dynamic presenters who are great examples of the entrepreneurs within the Lexington Community.

Anthony Pistilli, CEO of Phoenix Global Designs, Inc, which was the winner of the October round of the LVC’s 5Across pitch competition, presented and also demonstrated the Company’s new wireless technology product – Guardian Ace.

Next, Ben Askren, a former Lexmark engineer and Founder 42^nd Parallel, LLC, told the audience about his entrepreneurial experience and journey. Ben also discussed the Company’s BuildCalc mobile application for building professionals and how this new technology is being quickly adopted within industry.

To wrap the meeting up, John Meister, Lafe Taylor and Lamar Wilson, Co-Founders of Pheeva, LLC, a recent Kentucky Enterprise Fund grant recipient and developer of an HTML5 online game and monetization platform, told LVC members about the progress which this new Company is making in developing a new platform technology which will support game developers.  

The October 26th 5 Across event was yet another success (see www.5across.org). The 5 pitches were:

Tommy Crush pitched Crambu, which is a survey platform intended to collect data from customers via their mobile phones.  Promotions, such as raffles, giveaways, discounts and deals can be attached to these surveys to entice more responses. Crambu handles the backend of that process as well.

Mohammed Syeed Siddique pitched Voice-Out, which is a software development company which will provide enterprise solution to decreases IT expenses and administration requirement to maintain required services. Voice-Out does this by IT consultation followed by providing Social Technology platform linked with Virtualization and Cloud technology.

John Preston presented KidsLog, an app that will allow parents to track the growth and development of their children while building a worldwide database of growth and development patterns.

Evan Leach and Scott Wagner presented Crowded. This free application uses live interactive play prediction and trivia at baseball games to test the knowledge of competing viewers. Players are awarded accolades and offered the incentive of prizes for top scores, which will be tied into stadium concessions and prizes. The user interface allows fans of all ages and sports knowledge to play, while effectively delivering advertisements for team and stadium sponsors.

Anthony Pistilli pitched Phoenix Global Designs, Inc, which is a Wireless Real Time Location of assets including the management, monitoring infrastructure through a database.

The winner decided by the judges was, Anthony Pistilli with Phoenix Global Designs, Inc. Congratulations Anthony! The audience winner (decided via text message) was Evan Leach and Scott Wagner, with Crowded. Congratulations Evan and Scott. Your app will be awesome!

All the pitches were great! KidsLog and Crowded were both tied for second place in both the judges vote and the audience vote! We’re sure the judges had a hard time making their decision. Thanks to everyone who came out in support of this event. We were happy to see you and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you missed the event, you can see videos of the pitches at 5across.org. We hope to see you at the Final December 7th event!

The June 22nd 5 Across event was yet another success (see www.5across.org). The 5 pitches were:

Matt Fulton, pitched The Clubhouse, which is designed to provide the golf community with an outlet to play golf during the winter/rainy off-season and nighttime, or other times when traditional golf is not an option. In addition, The Clubhouse will provide a casual environment to eat sophisticated yet uncomplicated food with alcohol service and access to televised sporting events.
Laurel Christensen, pitched the Glowbe, a self-contained night light that projects patterns on surrounding surfaces, instantly transforming the space which it is in. It is a 20-sided geometric solid, an icosahedron, with a pattern cut out of each face. It is powered by 4 AA batteries which can be easily changed by opening one of the faces.
Jeffrey Lorch, pitched The Green Giant which is a portable,solar/diesel hybrid power station. The multi-functional power generating station features a 24 VDC power train which more efficiently generates energy, requiring less to operate, thus making it’s primary solar source much more feasible. It uses a hybrid power system utilizing two solar panels and a diesel fueled Auxiliary Power Unit . The Green Giant can also play a significant role in disaster relief operations as it can simultaneously illuminate a search area, pump air/oxygen into a location should a victim be found, and communicate via video and/or cellular to operation centers while the victim is being extricated.
Ben Freeman and Tyler Yarbrough, pitched Betabase, which is a first person, high definition video guidebook of popular rock climbing routes throughout the country starting with the Red River Gorge as a test piece. From these videos, they can also create 3D panoramic maps of rock faces using the still images which can be manipulated by climbers who want to study their projects at their leisure.
Eric Hartman, pitched The ACLerator, which is a physical therapy device for the sports medicine / rehabilitation market. The device is intended for muscle strengthening during post-surgical knee immobilization following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction (ACLR) or Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA).

The winner decided by the judges was Eric Hartman, with The ACLerator. Congratulations Eric! The audience winner (decided via text message) was Laurel Christensen, with the Glowbe. Congratulations Laurel. Your Glowbe lights were awesome!

All the pitches were great! We’re sure the judges had a hard time making their decision. Thanks to everyone who came out in support of this event. We were happy to see you and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you missed the event, you can see videos of the pitches at 5across.org. We hope to see you at the August 24th event!

The April 27th 5 Across event was yet another success (see www.5across.org). The 5 pitches were:

• Kyle Thomas presented the “FirmNexus”, which is a cloud-based web service for the legal industry. FirmNexus is designed to save law firms money and time by assisting in the matter management process.
• Shawn Campbell pitched iJonze, which is a real time, location based, on demand advertising/get the word out engine. iJonze provides businesses with the latest in technology to help them drive customers to there location and give them a very inexpensive way to do so. For the end user, it provides free web and mobile apps that allow you to find out what is actively happening in your area.
• PJ Targun and Gareth Penner pitched MajorLeagueBars.com, which is a website that would promote bars located near college campuses. The site would be free for people to use and very user friendly. Every bar will have their own personal profile which would include a calendar for specials/events for the month, location, hours, bar type, phone number, food options, size, features, a wall with people to comment on, pictures, and more.
• David Hayden presented Tabla, which is an ergonomic input and gaming device. Tabla will make computing a joy instead of a pain. It will also be customizable, putting control in the hands of the human. Tabla will also be a tremendous help for people with disabilities and will help relieve and prevent carpel tunnel and muscular skeletal disorders.
• Rachel Elam, Breanne Wilson, Lindsay Buckley, and Celeste Rupp pitched Double The Fun, which is specialized babysitting services with educational activities.They feel that it is safer to have two babysitters instead of one. For example, one person could be cooking dinner while the other is watching the children and teaching them one of our educational activities.

The winner decided by the judges was Shawn Campbell with “iJonze”. Congratulations Shawn! The audience winner (decided via text message) was Double The Fun. Congratulations, Rachel, Breanne, Lindsay, and Celeste. You did a great job.

All the pitches were great! We’re sure the judges had a hard time making their decision. Thanks to everyone who came out in support of this event. We were happy to see you and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you missed the event, you can see videos of the pitches at 5across.org. We hope to see you at the June 22th event!

The 5 Across 2011 kickoff event was yet another success (see www.5across.org). The 5 pitches were:

• Paul Sullivan presented the “Players Golf Network”, which is an online community where participants can organize, participate in, and share the experience of competitive golf tournaments, independent of location.
• Lamar Wilson, John Meister, and Lafe Taylor pitched Pheeva, which is an internet gaming entertainment company.
• Erick Sandstad and Lauren Miller pitched OwlDaily.com, which is evolving into the shopping Mall for coupons, gift cards and freebies for all 14,000 local shops.
• Michael A. Hartman presented Frogdice, Inc. which creates online computer games.
• Karl Beisel pitched the Lexington Sports & Social Club, which will organize and operate recreational sports leagues and social events for adults over 21.

The winner decided by the judges was Michael A. Hartman with “Frogdice, Inc.”. The audience winner (decided via text message) was Michael as well. Congratulations Michael! You did a great job.

All the pitches were great! We’re sure the judges had a hard time making their decision. Thanks to everyone who came out in support of this event. We were happy to see you and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We hope to see you at the April 27th event!

In 2010, entrepreneurial companies in the Bluegrass Region attracted $65 million in venture funding! The 89 Central Kentucky early-stage companies that participated in the annual Lexington Venture Club survey reported a total of $94 million in revenue and 748 people employed with an average full-time salary of $63,485. They also reported hiring 240 people in 2010.

For all the details from the 2011 Who Got the Money Celebration, view the program.

Set your calendars and join us January 25th, 2011 as we celebrate our Rock Stars!

Congratulations to our 2010 Five Across Grand Prize Winner, APO Online!

Anthony Schmidt, CEO of APO Online, beat out the other four previous winners to claim the $2,500 grand prize with his ambitious and successful organization management software. With 8,000 paying customers already among his APO brethren, he is well-positioned for success.

As part of his prize, Anthony and APO Online will be featured at the Lexington Venture Club’s annual celebration, “Who Got the Money?”