“Got Two Minutes?” Students Pitch Their Early Venture Ideas at Spring 2023 Rocket Pitch
Georgetown Entrepreneurship recently hosted its annual Spring 2023 Rocket Pitch Competition, a classic “elevator-style” pitch competition where Georgetown students present a two-minute pitch in front of an esteemed judging panel and an audience of peers and professionals.
This spring, 40 Georgetown student entrepreneur teams from all degree programs took the stage in Lohrfink Auditorium to enter the battle of ideas for a chance to win thousands of dollars in prize money.
Of the 40 teams that participated, one, in particular, shone through. The grand prize winner of $1,500 and the winner of the People’s Choice Award of $250 was Georgetown REUSE, founded by Stephane Granato (SFS’24), Brooke Hodge (SFS’24), and Molly Austin (SFS’25). Georgetown REUSE focuses on reducing waste and increasing access to affordable clothes, school supplies, and dorm materials within the Georgetown community. The company collects community clothing and dorm item donations and resells them at an affordable price during pop-up sales hosted on and around Georgetown’s campus.
Fit-Nest LLC was the second prize winner of $750, founded by Raashed Hall, a graduate of Georgetown’s Pivot Program. Fit-Nest LLC is a health and wellness company that produces and sells a patented workout device called the “Power Push-up.”
The Entrepreneurship Prize for the Common Good was awarded to Alone No More, founded by Dion Lorenz Romano (G‘24) and Hermella Mathewos (MPP’24). Alone No More is a social enterprise initiative that works towards destigmatizing mental health challenges among young professionals by providing online access to initiating mental health care services.
The Spring 2023 Rocket Pitch competition concluded with a keynote presentation from Neel Premkumar (B’02), founder and CEO of Dyla Brands. Dyla is a leading hydration beverage company with products sold in 50,000 retail stores that help Americans consume over one billion glasses of water, replace over 60 million pounds of sugar, and reduce over 500 million plastic bottles in circulation each year.
“The competition was fierce for this year’s Rocket Pitch and we are very proud of the competing teams for preparing and delivering their startup pitches,” said Jeff Reid, founding director of Georgetown Entrepreneurship. “We look forward to welcoming other aspiring entrepreneurs across the university to our pitch competitions throughout the spring semester, including our much anticipated Georgetown Entrepreneurship Challenge in April.”