BOSTON, Nov. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Collegiate entrepreneurs targeting markets ranging from pet care and voter education to music and ecommerce will soon face off – all seeking to earn bragging rights during the 7th Annual Beantown Throwdown. Hosted by MIT Enterprise Forum (MITEF) Cambridge metro Boston’s longest-standing and largest cross-college pitch-off will be held Tuesday evening, November 19, at LogMeIn’s global headquarters in Boston’s Innovation District.
Designed to engage the teams and audience members alike, each startup will make a three-minute pitch, then respond to questions. Once all teams have presented, audience members will play the roles of VCs – using ‘MITEF Money’ to invest in the startups that most impressed them. The three teams earning the largest investments will take first, second and third place respectively. The evening’s expert panel will also select a winner. Prizes will be awarded to all teams, intended to help drive their entrepreneurial endeavors forward.
Scheduled during Global Entrepreneur Week, the night will open with innovation industry influencers and entrepreneurs sharing real-world experiences, insights and advice with the crowd. Moderated by Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe’s Innovation Economy columnist and co-founder of Innovation Leader, his expert panelists include:
- Lily Lyman, Principal, Underscore VC, a Boston, MA-based Seed-to-A venture capital firm
- Kiki Mills Johnston, Managing Director, DRIVE by DraftKings, an ecosystem of athletes, entrepreneurs, investors, and teams who are driving the acceleration of sports professionals into tech and tech entrepreneurs into sports
- Rachel Pardue, Co-Founder & CEO, LOU, winner of the 2018 Beantown Throwdown.
Comprising a cross-section of young entrepreneurs from a diverse group of schools, this year’s contestants will include:
- Babson College: Arist – the text message learning app
- Berklee College of Music: Harmonet – empowering the independent musician and music professional
- Boston College: OurPet – the pet care lifestyle app Sparky will thank you for
- Boston University: Community Connect – a health resource delivery platform for social workers
- Brandeis University: SpeechFlow – challenging traditional methods on how we present and interact with data
- Harvard University: LeverEdge – the first collective bargaining group for student loans
- Holy Cross College: Basement To Bucks – a business service that sells your excess items
- MCPHS, GenMed – a database for the transfer of genetic materials among hospitals
- Middlesex Community College: VotED – the first-ever, all-inclusive voter education app
- Northeastern University: Bountium – programs your business to handle customer orders automatically
- Queens College: Doppl – building long-range sensors for smart city applications
- Tufts University: TableTab – allowing guests at sit-down restaurants to order and pay for their meals as quickly and easily as ordering an Uber
- UMass Lowell: Ambulatory Innovations – created by physical therapists for physical therapists, helping patients get better, quicker and faster
- Wentworth Institute of Technology: ARIA – a cutting-edge enhancement to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and anxiety treatment
“We want to promote cross-collaboration between schools and open students’ eyes to what a great community they have around [Boston],” Katja Wald, Executive Director, MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, said recently in CHEN PR’s Then They Said This podcast series. Beantown Throwdown’s first-ever winner, Dip Patel, currently chief technology officer with Soluna and a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, added, “My Ecovent team was doing a lot of student pitches. The reason [the Beantown Throwdown] was cool was that it exposed us to a whole different set of communities that we wouldn’t have gotten exposed to otherwise.”
A standing-room-only event every year since its inception, those interested in attending are encouraged to register as soon as possible. A limited number of sponsorship opportunities are still available; please contact Maham Risvi at MITEF Cambridge (smrizvi@mit.edu) to inquire.
Beantown Throwdown 2019:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
LogMeIn: 333 Summer St, Boston MA 02210
5:30pm-8:00 pm
Registration and more information is available online.
#BeantownThrowdown19
@MITEFCMB
Listen to CHEN PR’s complete Then They Said This podcast about the Beantown Throwdown here.
The Beantown Throwdown is made possible by sponsors LogMeIn, CHEN PR, Government of Canada, Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds and Pepper Hamilton LLP.
About the MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge
The MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge is the founding chapter and one of 27 worldwide chapters comprising the MIT Enterprise Forum, Inc. Celebrating its 40th anniversary of offering more than 40 programs and events annually that inspire innovation, MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge initiatives facilitate critical one-on-one mentoring while providing team services that increase the skills and expertise necessary for entrepreneurs to succeed. Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or Spotify.