App Taps wins annual business pitch competition

Senior Nick Creegan won the 2014 Fall Business Pitch Competition Tuesday night and acquired $3,500 to launch App Taps.

The Look App received second position, winning $1000, and Future By Drones took third place, winning $500.

The University of Richmond Entrepreneurship Club and its sponsor, the Association of Corporate Growth, organized the event. The jury, which comprised three executives from local firms, judged the business pitches based on clarity, comprehensiveness, potential value, concept and realistic implementation potential.

Eric Martin, director of Richmond's Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program, said, “The finalists have had a week to hone their presentations, revisit some basic premises in their concepts and receive personal coaching.”

Creegan introduced Taps with the motto: “So many choices, so little stomach space.”

Taps was designed to make it simpler for craft-beer drinkers to pick from all the different brands and types of beer on the market, and to adjust their decision to their own personal taste and preferences.

“It means a lot to us, because it really legitimizes everything we’ve been working on,” Creegan said. “It also gives us the opportunity to start to target different markets, and that’s what’s most important to us. We want to reach as many places as fast as possible.”

Creegan was one among 17 students who qualified for the finals of the business pitch competition. All students presented eight-minute-long pitches followed by questions from the jury.

The Look App, by Brooke Wilson and Eliza Breed, is a dating app designed from a woman’s perspective. Wilson said, “Start user growth is [our] goal because that’s where the revenue comes from.”

Future By Drones, by Killan McGiboney, was the only pitch that didn’t involve the creation of a new app. Instead, it consisted of a new technology that is used to record videos and would potentially serve as a way of recruiting athletes for universities.

Some of the students in the crowd complained about the lack of advertisement about the event. “I didn’t find out about it until today,” said Celine Lewandowski, a junior in the business school. “If I would’ve known I would have definitely participated.”

Martin said they used all the conventional vehicles to advertise the event. “We were on the screens, we put it on SpiderBytes and Twitter, and the fact is that those normal things just don’t reach people.”

At the end of the event, Martin said it would have been really hard for him to pick one among the 17. He said, “They all worked really hard, and they’re all winners.”

Contact reporter Marta Quero at marta.quero@richmond.edu