2020 Startup Montclair Contest Results

Startup Montclair, our annual pitch contest, held virtually on April 22, is to identify the most innovative ideas, with a panel of judges awarding prizes to the most compelling concepts. Any Montclair State student and alum can enter the competition. Alumni teams must have at least one Montclair State student. Find out more about the 2021 Startup Montclair pitch contest here.

2020 Competition Highlights:

JUDGES:

Jill Johnson, CEO – Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership

Steven Rosenblatt, Co-Founder & General Partner – Oceans Ventures

Ricardo Tavera, Serial Entrepreneur

STUDENT WINNING TEAMS:

1st Place- Dr. Floss: Hassan Kashif and Zaki Tahir

Female Founders Prize- Garbage Wine: James Reilly, Melissa Spigelman, and Rashelle Jackson

2nd Place- SoLo’s Food: Diamonique Lundy and Kheyyon Parker

3rd Place- Cloud Card: Tiamera Rasmussen-Ellen and Megan Canzonieri

PRIZES:

Teams will compete for the following prizes:

1st place – $25,000 cash* + industry support (details below)

Female Founders** prize – $25,000 cash* + industry support (details below)

2nd place – $10,000 cash* + industry support (details below)

3rd place – $5,000 cash + industry support (details below)

* For cash prizes, 20 percent of the award goes directly to the team members and the remaining 80 percent must be invested in the startup venture under the coaching of the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. See team agreement for more info.

** Women and women-identified must make up more than 50% of the founding partners.

Industry support is valued at more than $31,000 and includes:

Cloud credits and business tech support from AWS Start-Ups
Free provisional patent applications, provided by Gearhart LLC
Website support from Wix including but not limited to:
- (1) Hands-on Wix workshops on how to plan a website, use the Wix platform, explore design features, and learn about advanced digital marketing like SEO and email marketing.
- (2) A one-year free coupon code for students to upgrade their site to any of Wix’s Website or Business Premium Plans. This will allow students to connect to their own domain (i.e. www.mybusiness.com), utilize Google Analytics, design a professional logo, unlimited bandwidth, and more.
- (3) One-to-one sessions with Wix designers to provide professional guidance and design feedback on how to take their website to the next level.
Dedicated desk(s) & access to co-working space within the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation from June 2020 until December 2020.
Option for prize money to be paid as work stipend, depending on team composition and at the discretion of faculty mentor upon achievement of mutually agreed upon milestones.

Community Prize:

On May 1, we held a Montclair Community pitch contest for four Montclair based businesses to compete in. Top prize was $2,500 and industry support from our center.

COMMUNITY PRIZE WINNING TEAM:

1st Place- Roncero Reiki

Honorable Mention- Vett News