Recap of Merrimack Valley Sandbox Pitch Contest

The theme for Thursday night's Merrimack Valley Sandbox pitch contest was High Growth/Tech. Host for the evening was Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico in Tewskbury. They provided excellent space for both the pre-event networking an the presentations.

The Crowd

It was great to see so many kids at this kind of event. It takes a little of the mystery out of the adult business world for them. It was also great to see MIN entrepreneur, Bobbie Carlton out here in the wilds of the Merrimack Valley.

The Judges

The first place winner and the fan favorite was mino by ParaWare, a device that  tracks the wear of  your running shoes. The idea grew out of the founder's experience with an injury caused by worn out shoes. Sometimes the shoe is too worn to provide proper support before the wear becomes visible. The mino fits right in your shoe, keeps track of your usage, and lets you know when it's time for new running shoes.

Phil Colangelo Presenting

My personal favorite was the Robotic Feeding Arm developed by Philip Colangelo at UMass Lowell. It's a device that enables people with disabilities to feed themselves more independently.

A social networking theme emerged with three of the presenters:

• Joanna de Pena presented Top Notch Network, a targeted social network that brings together students, social groups, and  businesses to create scholarship opportunities for students in need.

• Margot Rutledge presented Career Rings, a  web-based platform that brings together college students and recent college graduates in small online workshops with coaches, to develop career building skills for today's job market.

• Nick Zeckets  presented QuadWrangle, an  app to connect alumni and their colleges more directly to  build fundraising and to facilitate career networking.

In addition to the scheduled presenters, two wildcards were drawn from a hat: Pet Chance, which helps pet owners raise money for veterinary care through crowdfunding, and ArtistBomb.com, a network that brings together musicians and venues as well as music fans. Pet Chance has a  great idea and gave a great presentation. ArtistBomb.com came prepared with slides even though they weren't on the program. Both added a lot to the night.

Networking

While the judges jotted down notes after each presentation, attendees had the chance to make short pitches of their own. That gave people a chance to identify folks to be sure to seek out for networking after the awarding of the prize checks. All this made for a rich experience of both formal and informal networking.

50 events, 500 products, awesome connections #min500

The Mass Innovation Nights awesomeness continues. Billed as a celebration of first 500 products launched at MIN, the 50th MIN event last night was part class reunion, part celebration, part product showcase, and all fun.  The Boston Globe hosted us again and also gave us some good press. Thanks, Boston Globe!

Providence - Old Stone Bank Dome Viewed from Governor Stephen Hopkins House

I started the day in Providence taking photos for new listings we're adding to At-Hand Guides.  That's a MIN story in its own right. Mass Innovation Nights events are all about connection. My association with At-Hand Guides is all about connections. Back in the distant mists of 2010, I ran into my old friend and colleague Jim Burrows at MIN20. At the time he mentioned that he and his son were working on some kind of mobile apps thing. I filed that somewhere in the lower left hand corner of my brain, where it stayed filed until a dark and stormy night in April of 2011 and MIN25. There I met Robert  Gray of At-Hand Apps (we've changed the name since then), which turned out to be the very mobile app thing Jim had been talking about. The rest is history. By the way, if you haven't bought New England At-Hand or one of our other guides for your iPhone, you're missing out. So that's how it came to pass that I'm leading off this story with a photo of Providence :-)

The Hive at Boston Globe Has Some Nifty Spaces

 So the Hive was full of MIN alumni and tons of people following up with each of them. The crowd built steadily from 6:00PM on until the place was just packed.  I made no attempt to photograph each table, instead concentrating on the crowd.

The Crowd Just Starting To Build -- Is That Trish From Vsnap Down There?

I even claimed I wasn't going to do any portraits this time so I could concentrate on crowds, since "social" is what MIN events are all about.

Above the Crowd -- Is That MoH Down There? And Izze Soda? Old Friends All!

Tim Stansky Taking Crowd Pix

Now That's A Crowd!

MIN is all about using social media to get the word out about cool products so there was a whole lot of tweeting going on.

Social Media Action Shot: Men of MIN with their Phones

It was great to see so many familiar faces and products. I love that I got to follow up with Julie from Chococoa Baking about how the whoopie pies went over at my cousin's birthday party.

BobbieC and Her Megaphone Summoning Folks to the Panel Discussion Upstairs

It was hard to stop catching up with all the alumni, and head upstairs to the panel discussion, but I loved hearing Noteflight, Chococoa Baking, GaggleAmp, and Project Repat talk about their experiences. Everybody gets useful lessons from MIN.

MIN By The Numbers

Tim's MIN By The Numbers slide show really showed the  power of connection. The tweet reach of MIN events is amazing.

From On High -- The View from the Third Floor

There were still tons of people milling about the tables downstairs while the slide show and panel were going on upstairs.  It was nonstop action wherever I looked. I had so many great conversations about everything from Third Wave coffee to the fall of the Pemberton Mill, that I can't recap them all here. Maybe those are topics for further blog entries.

One of many things I've learned at MIN events is the importance of branding. RaceMenu has so identified their brand with the color orange, that I think of them whenever I see orange. They had their orange banners and shirts going on at MIN500 and I hereby award them Best Costume of MIN500!

Best Costume

a fresh tilled #min49

Fresh Tilled Soil

April's Mass Innovation Night (number 49!) happened at Fresh Tilled Soil's nifty space at Riverworks in Watertown. The Fresh Tilled Soil space is airy and bright and welcoming. They deserve an awesome thanks for hosting MIN.

The lineup of entrepreneurs was impressive, maybe even more impressive than usual. No two MIN events are the same. I find something new every time. The thing that struck me this time was the quality and professionalism of the student entrepreneurs. When I talked with the women of Tempo from Team Unpredictable about their cozy fleece scarves, I first thought they were college students. They gave a great pitch that showed they understand their target market.

Team Unpredictable

Convert-A-Bag from Build Boston is a great idea, a messenger bag that converts to a backpack. Terrance described his target market as high school and college students who need to carry a lot of books but also want to look stylish. He showed me how easy it is to convert. It only took a few seconds.

Convert-a-Bag

It wasn't until I talked with some of the mentors from Build that it really sank in that these entrepreneurs are still in high school. I was totally unfamiliar with the Build program before #MIN49. I think that's my biggest take away from the night.

Bureh Belts impressed me with designs made in Sierra Leone from colorful traditional fabrics and recycled metal.  I'm big on non-leather belts and I recognize the importance of story and social mission in generating business these days. Bureh Belts definitely has that.

Bureh Belts

There seemed to be a theme of using "social" technology for connecting people in the real world going on too, with Independiva and Group Tones.

Independiva  is a social website for women who want to connect around similar interests and free time.   Networking for leisure time activities, I guess. It came out of the founders' need to find people to do things with. It's a membership organization that gives members a safe and simple way to search, connect, and meet each other. Their revenue model includes selling branded merchandise with their cool logo. And yes, they did the matching T-shirt thing so I awarded them Best Costume of #MIN49. Oh, and they gave me a tote bag with their cool logo.

Independiva -- Best Costume of #MIN49

Group Tones  founder Dan Adler-Golden , a Boston-based cellist, recounted his story of finding it hard as  musician  to find practice space, information about venues, and other musicians to play with. He created Group Tones for an easier way to connect the music community.

Group Tones

Probably the coolest techie-type product thingie of the night was the Brass Monkey game controller. Talk about brilliant, it uses smart phones as controllers and any screen with a web browser as the main display. The guy in the photo below was using the accelerometer on his iPhone to manipulate the game -- I should've done video to show how cool that was :-). It's a neat way to build and play games without buying any devoted hardware.

Brass Monkey

SEO for 2013: Search Engine Optimization Secrets Made Easy is a DIY SEO guide for small businesses from Auctus Marketing.

SEO for 2013

Awesome.me is all about showing off the awesome in your life, with a "Life Collage" and a one-liner biography. It's kind of like combining a Pinterest board with a Twitter-like resume.  140-character resumes are the in thing lately, but Awesome dot me gives you a bit more than that :-)

Awesome

GreenStreamLine Eco Friendly Market is one-stop shopping for environmentally conscious consumers with style. I have to say I never thought about Tyvek shoes before. Somehow I managed to miss getting a photo of them.

The Crowd Listening to GreenStreamLine Presentation

Oh, and SqueeDogs was there too. Lots of folks were signing up for their Beta. I wrote about SqueeDogs back in January when I met Cerise at the crowd funding event.

The Experts Corner was really in a corner this time and I almost missed them. I did end up asking several questions of the experts and got a cool "Experts Looking Expert" shot for the traditional conclusion.

Experts Looking Expert

Merrimack Valley Sandbox Creative Economy Pitch Contest

Seems like everybody I ran into at Brew'd Awakening on Thursday afternoon was heading for the Merrimack Valley Sandbox pitch contest at UTEC later that day. And what could be a more fitting end to my "day of art" spent visiting galleries in Lowell with my friend from Worcester than the Creative Economy pitch contest.  This was especially true because Andy was one of the judges. Some days I think Brew'd Awakening is the creative economy.

The Crowd Begins Filling the UTEC Space

So I walked on over to UTEC. The crowd was already pretty good when I arrived, and by the time the pitches started the place was packed. I ran into so many people I know, that I almost didn't have time to talk to all of them, check out the tables, and do the all important networking with people I don't know.

Crowd - Lots of Pitching, Networking, and Just Plain Talk Going On

Checking out the tables, networking, taking pictures, having great conversations about all manner of creative economy topics and sampling the delicious food provided by the UTEC teens ... all kept me busy.

Meet the Judges

Not only do I know two of the judges -- Andy and Liz -- but two of the participating entrepreneurs are folks I met at Mass Innovation Nights. I remembered Emily and her Fashion Truck from Mass Innovation Night #MIN37. I remembered Veronica from Mass Innovation Night in January (#MIN46). It was great to see her again!

Emily from The Fashion Truck

My Crowning Jewel

First Place

Veronica from My Crowning Jewel won first place. Well deserved.  Not only are her head wraps exquisitely beautiful, but she has a solid business model and knows her market.

Marquis Victor of  Elevated Thought  Foundation made an excellent presentation. He won second place and also won the Fan Favorite voting. I think the Elevated Thought Foundation mural in the background helped a lot. ETP uses art to provide at-risk youth with the knowledge and skills to use their creativity to make positive changes in their lives and communities.The mural they did for UTEC is certainly inspiring.

Marquis with Mural as Backdrop

Second Place

I chatted a bit with Diane of the Cupcakory cupcake truck -- kind of a competitor to North Andover's own Pipedream Cupcakes (fortunately they never seem to end up at the same events). Her recipes use locally sourced and organic ingredients. She'd like to outfit her truck to serve coffee with her cupcakes.  Cupcakes are very popular and food trucks are very popular, and Diane is onto something.  Her third place winnings will help finance putting a generator in her truck.  Keep an eye out for the Cupcakory truck in Boston's Dewey Square.

Cupcakory - Third Place

 I had a great time talking with Peter Zimmerman about Mill City Glass Works, a glass blowing studio at Western Avenue Studios. Besides his hand-made glass gifts and jewelry, he plans to offer workshops for the public. Imagine making your own glass ornament and learning the craft of glass blowing. His pitch was good but the competition was tough.

Glassblowing

Chhavy Sinuon of Style This Shindig designs amazing creations for events. Need a pulled-together look for a special event like a wedding? Style This Shindig designs the whole decor -- kind of like interior decorating but for events. I never thought about event styling as separate from event planning, so I learned something from her presentation. I checked out her table after the pitches. Her arrangements are definitely quite stylish.

Stylish!

New Vestures maker space is a great idea. It's a space for fashion designers and those who want to make cool stuff.  Diana's New Vestures venture offers space rentals for resident users and day visitors, classes in sewing, illustration, millinery, jewelry making, as well as modeling for 3D printing and even Arduino Lilly-pad programming. People want to make real stuff these days, and a maker space that provides tools and opportunities for learning the skills is an idea whose time has come.

New Vestures -- Great Looks and Best Hat!

Le Jus makes beverages with wonderful flavors that are not that familiar in the US. I especially liked sea-buckthorn. Actually, I loved the sea-buckthorn. I like that Julia thinks the greater Boston area is a good place to introduce unusual flavors.

Le Jus

I talked briefly with Jon  from the Humanitarian Film Workshop about his mini/micro documentaries. He teaches micro-documentary film making skills workshops where students document the work of humanitarian organizations, on location in  developing countries. I'd love to see some student filmmakers document the work of Engineers Without Borders in Obodan, Ghana or anywhere else that EWB is making a difference. 
 

Documentary Film Maker

Secret Spin Jam promotes the joy of hula hooping and whip cracking with beautiful hoops and whips. Definitely cool props.

Hoops

Christine told me about her  school calendars that fit in lockers.

Locker Looks

One of my favorite conversations of the night was with Adrianna of Forgotten Charm. Her table full of vintage cameras definitely caught my eye. Turns out she is trying to bring back film photography.  She plans to sell vintage cameras, some of which she reconditions herself,  and accessories to ordinary photographers. Looking at the old Polaroid Land Cameras was a walk down memory lane. When I told her that my first camera was a Brownie, she pulled one out from under the table!

Vintage Polaroid Camera

Anthony of Mizizi Design sells beautiful Kenyan crafts.

Mizizi Design

MHM Studios Printmaking is a fully equipped printmaking studio for custom printing as well as workshops and plate-making instruction for artists.

Printmaking

A highly productive and thought-provoking evening. I had lots of great conversations about creativity, making stuff, and making a difference with so many great people.

the #MIN48 epic

View of Boston from Holt Hill in Andover

Did you know you can see Boston from Andover? You can. It looks pretty good on a fine spring (sort of) day too. Though I was enjoying the view and the bluebirds at Ward Reservation I cut my walk short so I could attend the 48th instance of Mass Innovation Night. Think of it: 48 great events over 4 years. That's an achievement. Congrats to Bobbie C and her awesome team and thanks to all the sponsors over the past 4 years!

Fenway Park

Even before the awesomeness that is Fenway Park was built, Boston was a hub of innovation. Your assignment, dear reader, is to check out Steven Puleo's A City So Grand.  Boston was a happening place in 1860. So it was definitely fitting that MIN celebrated 4 years of great product launches in the very heart of Boston in the shadow of Fenway Park at the Landsdowne Pub. Thanks to Landsdowne Pub for hosting.

The New MIN Sign

I started encountering MIN regulars before I even got inside the Landsdowne. MIN regular and all around awesome dude, William Toll, stopped to take a pic of the MIN megaphone banner at the same time I did.  Actually, the sign was probably the best photo I got all night. The dark pub and small alcoves for the demo tables made for a challenge. I decided to try going with a very high ISO rating (6400) to get that watercolorish artistic look instead of crisp and business-like -- with mixed results but I just had to try. I even used the watercolor effect filter in Photoshop to bring out the flatness a little more.

The #MIN48 Crowd As Watercolor

So now, on to the cool products. I very much enjoyed talking with Jeff from Mortgage Auction even though I am not in the market for a mortgage. I like the idea of the lenders bidding to produce the best quote for the borrower. I also thought Mortgage Auction nailed the presentation with great slides and a real live customer describing his experience. Kudos to Mortgage Auction.

The Dark Alley of Mortgage Shopping Today -- No Wonder We Need Mortgage Auction

The most unexpectedly cool product I encountered was Shelldhwani Speakers. The visual beauty and the acoustic properties of natural sea shells combine with Shelldhwani's technology to enhance the pleasure of listening to your audio devices -- way cooler than any of the external speakers I've tried with my iPod.

Shell Speaker

The ThinkerDeck demo reminded me of how the traditional model  of index cards that you can shuffle and color code, etc. really helps with organizing information. ThinkerDeck is an iPad app for capturing, storing, and managing notes, ideas, and inspiration. Simple, elegant, and so useful.

ThinkerDeck

Innovation in water? You bet! Saka Natural Alkaline Water is refreshing, bottled at source without any additives, has a pH of 8.2 and lots of minerals, and comes in collapsible, BPA-free, phthalate free bottles. It tasted great and quenched my thirst. And I love that they're a global brand based in Charlestown.

Saka Water

Lots of MIN regulars spend lots of time in airports (when they're not at MIN :-)) and they got very excited about Tripchi.  Bored at the airport during your flight delay? Imagine customized recommendations of things to do in the airport based on your personality, interests and flight info. Imagine exclusive deals on food, beverages, and shopping. Imagine detailed content for exploring the airport. I predict that lots of folks who attended #MIN48 immediately signed up for the Tripchi Beta.

Tripchi

HelpAroundTown is another innovation on an old idea: hiring your neighbors to do tasks for you. Remember  your early entrepreneurship experience mowing neighbors' lawns and shoveling their driveways? Imagine a job board that connects people needing help with neighbors seeking work!

HelpAroundTown

As someone who frequently drops iDevices, I liked  the OnGuard Vertex iPhone and iPad cases with stands that work both horizontally and vertically.

OnGuard Vertex

Chatting with the regulars and the first time attendees, checking out as many products as I could, talking with the experts, playing with my camera ... is all so much I couldn't possibly write a complete account of the evening. There were all kinds of terrific people so I got to practice my portrait photography. Kash posed for me as did all of the experts and many of the regulars.

Kash

Dave

The experts all looked very expert and they had a great corner near the entrance so got lots of visitors early on. Chris looked particularly expert, so he gets to be the traditional "expert looking expert" image.

Chris Looking Expert