Pitch Party winners and founders of Udwell, Yael Bloom and Tali Cohen, with competition organizers Ben Rapkin and Valery Caputi Lopez.

Big pitch

Udwell wins big at University Pitch Party competition

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3:55 p.m., Nov. 21, 2013--Armed with only their wits and startup ideas, 20 student teams gathered to compete against each other at the annual Pitch Party competition held last Friday on the University of Delaware’s Newark campus.

Yael Bloom and Tali Cohen, founders of Udwell, took home the top prize of $1,000 to further expand and grow their business. Kyle Garvin, founder of Extend-a-Bed, was the runner-up.

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Hosted by the Entrepreneurship Club (E-Club) and UD’s Horn Program in Entrepreneurship, the competition featured participants battling it out in three action-packed elimination rounds, amid music, popcorn, an official judging panel and an audience of cheering fans.

The first round winners were determined by a combination of audience and judges’ votes. On the judging panel were Michael Bowman, chairman and president of the Delaware Technology Park, and John Osoinach, director of the New Castle County Small Business and Technical Development Center at UD. 

Contestants selected to advance to the next rounds were evaluated on three criteria: idea validity, pitch quality and innovation/creativity. Ultimately, the two teams with the greatest number of votes went on to battle head-to head in the final round. 

The E-Club and Horn Program representatives thanked the following students who participated: Farhad Baqi, Peter Kroll, Jake Mulcahy, Kyle Garvin, Hannah Lightcap, Mac Nagawami, Becca Leisher, Alexa Siegel, Shitong Cao, Peter Fomin, Mathew Lenhard, Troy Catalano, Andres Holland, Jake Mason, Jordan Sack, Prabhpreet Gill, Gursatva Singh Algh, Aaron Kesler, Scott Tian and Will Kashdan.

Article by Valery Caputi Lopez

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