The
EforAll Lowell & Lawrence #ShopLocal Pitch Contest on Thursday focused on a retail and services theme. Products ranged from skin care and hair care items to cutlery, clothing, and play space. Santander Bank sponsored the event. Mill No. 5 and Coffee and Cotton hosted it, with the tables arranged along the 4th floor bazaar space, much like the weekly bazaars, so it felt very natural to have retail products on display.
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| Mill No. 5 -- Great Space for Tabling |
The pitch contest was inside Coffee and Cotton in the "Victorian Lounge" space. The crowd was so big that it was standing room only and there were even people watching/listening from the hallway. The energy and enthusiasm of the pitchers and the audience ran high.
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| View of the Tables from Inside Red and White Market |
The judges were:
- Karen Cirillo, Lowell City Councilor
- Sarah Hand, Mill No. 5
- Jennifer Howell, Owner of Sutra Studio and EforAll Alumn
- Deep Singh, Vice President of R&D and Operations at Alcyone
The scheduled pitchers were:
- The Chameleon Room
- KOI Inc.
- Nourish Shakti
- Dandelion District
- Eva's Garden
- Mill Girls Cutlery & Kitchenware
I made the rounds to check out every table and use my table favorite voting stickers to help decide who else would get to pitch. Each attendee gets three stickers and it was hard to choose the product I most wanted to hear. I enjoyed talking to all of these entrepreneurs and I managed to photograph most of them.
Salon Mii is a hair salon based in Lawrence offering hair and skin care, with their own line of products. I enjoyed talking with them and meeting their youngest brand ambassador.
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| Salon Mii |
Manraaj, A Liquid Yoga Company offers cold pressed herbal juice shots that deliver both nutrients and flavor that will wake you up, revitalize you, and maybe even reverse aging. OK, just kidding about reversing aging but I did feel suddenly younger after I tried a little of both juices: Embrace and Revive.
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| Liquid Yoga |
Nourish Shakti offers holistic wellness coaching and botanical creations for personal care, such as herbal lip balm and facial toning mist.
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| Nourish Shakti |
Eva's Garden specializes in natural skin care products, including body butters for people with allergies to coconut and nuts and other sensitivities. They had the best understanding of their market of anyone I talked to. They made a very strong and focused pitch. Loved hearing them.
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| Eva's Garden |
Dandelion District sells vintage, re-purposed, and art clothing in Mill No.5 and is looking to expand her offerings. Her pitch was strong and on point too.
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| Dandelion District |
The Chameleon Room pitched a re-configurable indoor playspace to provide kids with new play experiences. She also had a cool chameleon lamp at her table -- I photographed her with it when it was a nice blue to coordinate with her outfit. She generated a lot of audience enthusiasm with her pitch.
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| The Chameleon Room |
Mill Girls Cutlery and Kitchenware showcased some of the cool cutlery and kitchen stuff they're planning to carry in a retail store in Lowell soon. Millennials need good knives and there's currently no kitchenware store in Lowell. Just as I was thinking "Maybe they could sell the UTEC cutting boards," I spotted Geoff Foster of UTEC shaking hands with Claire. Guess there
might be some UTEC cutting boards coming to Mill Girls Cutlery.
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| Mill Girls Cutlery and Kitchenware |
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One of the coolest products there was
MOON Selfie Light a handy clip on light for your phone that provides perfect lighting for selfies. Who hasn't been in a memorable situation and wished for better lighting for your selfie to preserve the memory? The MOON light is very compact and fits your devices neatly. The best part is the ability to adjust brightness and color temperature. I was a little surprised it didn't win the table favorite pitch slot, but it did get the Santander Pick pitch slot and Ed handled the last minute pitch opportunity brilliantly.
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| MOON Selfie |
DryLQD is a clothing line of wearable inspirational art. Eli, the artist, creates incredibly detailed artworks and treats the T-shirts, hats, etc. almost as a gallery. DryLQD won the table favorite pitch slot.
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| DryLQD |
XOI makes a skin care juice from gac fruit. Used in traditional Vietnamese medicine, gac fruit heals skin and delivers Vitamin A. I tasted a couple of flavors and liked it. Maybe I should add it to my skin care regime.
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| XOI |
The pitches were all interesting, the judges asked good questions, and the timing moved along smoothly. While the judges were off deliberating, it was time for the audience to vote. The fan favorite voting, a fun part of the event, usually done by texting the letter of the pitch you're voting for to a specified number, developed some sort of glitch so the fan favorite was chosen by the loudness of the applause.
The Fan Favorite went to The Chameleon Room. An additional prize of personal mentoring from Santander went to DryLQD.
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| Chameleon Room Wins Fan Favorite |
The big money prizes went to:
Dandelion District 3rd Place $500
Mill Girls Cutlery and Kitchenware 2nd Place $750
Eva's Garden First Place $1000
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| Dandelion District 3rd Place $500 |
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| Mill Girls Cutlery and Kitchenware 2nd Place $750 |
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| Eva's Garden First Place $1000 |
What a great night!
