🔒Entrepreneur ‘pitch’ culture spreads across CT

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Glastonbury resident Marien Zanyk walked on stage at a UConn auditorium in Farmington this month and looked out at an audience of more than 60 investors, bankers, attorneys and other supporters of the state's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The former real estate investor and medical device saleswoman with a pathology doctorate didn't hesitate, launching into a two-minute presentation about her free-form exercise device and why investors should back it.

“It's really nice to introduce you to WillowWORX,” said Zanyk, displaying a deck of slides featuring pictures of the 40-pound, tree-like device, which she's pitching as a better and less costly alternative to heavier and more expensive weights and exercise machinery. “It is truly exercise inspired by nature.”

Zanyk's confidence on stage at the Crossroads Venture Group (CVG) event belied the personal significance of the moment. It was the first time she had ever formally pitched her 2014 invention to a crowd, she said.

Zanyk wasn't getting investment offers that night, but she hopes to soon. Lucky for her and others, thanks to groups like CVG, the Angel Investor Forum, Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI), and others, Connecticut entrepreneurs have more opportunities today than ever before to hone their pitches and get exposure to potential investors.

Some pitch events are specifically targeted to certain industries or niches, such as Hartford-based reSET's Impact Challenge, which for the past five years has awarded cash prizes to social-enterprise startups.

And next month, Connecticut Innovations (CI), the state's quasi-public venture arm, will host a $5 million pitch competition — likely the largest ever in Connecticut, and among the largest in the country.

“I would say that in the last three years, there's a lot more pitch events and a lot more organizations doing it,” said Mary Anne Rooke, CVG's executive director since early 2015 and an angel investor in Connecticut since 2005. She's also a mentor for the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, which supports and seeds Yale student- and faculty-led ventures, and has coached entrepreneurs involved in the MassChallenge, a nonprofit startup accelerator in Boston.

Bruce Carlson, CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council, which has hosted pitch events in the past, said they are aimed at the adage “practice makes perfect.”

“Originally these events were really about giving an entrepreneur an opportunity to practice his or her pitch prior to going to pitch an investor,” Carlson said. “Over time, they have become more formalized” like at CVG and CI events, he said.

Not ‘Shark Tank’

When entrepreneurs pitch to investors, it's inevitable someone will make a comparison to the popular ABC show “Shark Tank,” during which celebrity investors review pitches and compete — sometimes bitterly — to invest in companies they like. Pitchees have been brought to tears more than once.

The show, which launched in 2009, has undoubtedly played a role in the growth of entrepreneurial culture, but Rooke said her association's monthly events, which often feature 10 pitches from different companies are far from the same thing.

“That's all for TV,” Rooke said. “We say we're the total opposite because we angel investors really look to nurture and mentor the entrepreneurs.”

Another key difference: CVG doesn't make investments itself. Its goal is to connect promising startups and companies to potential investors.

“Wherever [entrepreneurs'] networks are, they're going to stay,” Rooke said, so one of the goals of pitch events is to keep more promising and often young entrepreneurs in Connecticut.

Rooke offers pitch coaching to many of the companies that present at CVG events. She has also started offering one-on-one meetings between investors and entrepreneurs prior to the public portions of the events. She said those changes have led to more attendance by investors and better quality pitches and companies.

CI’s cash competitions

One major player in the state's entrepreneurial scene has been CTNext's Entrepreneurial Innovation Awards, launched in 2013, which as of earlier this month had granted $510,000 to 49 companies and entrepreneurs, mostly in $10,000 increments.

CTNext, a startup-focused program overseen by CI, also offers pitch coaching through its group of “entrepreneurs in residence,” said Jessica Dodge, a CI senior associate who oversees the awards. Pitches aren't specifically scored, but Dodge said they are part of the overall impression entrepreneurs make on judges, as well as the crowd, which votes on a favorite at each event. “It factors into the gut impression,” Dodge said.

On Sept. 15, CTNext distributed its lastest round of awards — $64,000 to six Connecticut companies. Among the winners were Lucca Ventures Inc. of Southington, which has created a device that improves voice communication for patients with respiratory illnesses and New Britain-based Eureeka, which pitched its decision-making software for logistics professionals.

Dodge said groups like CVG and the Angel Investor Forum are helpful in honing young companies' pitch skills.

“We're all working toward the same goal,” she said. “I think it's really positive that companies have taken advantage of a lot of opportunities.”

And she has noticed that competitors seem to be more polished these days.

“It's becoming incredibly good,” she said. “The companies being invited to pitch have stepped up their game.”

Even for those who pitch and don't win, exposure to the investors who are often in the crowd can be just as valuable, she added.

Meantime, VentureClash – CI's inaugural $5 million pitch competition – received nearly 170 applications from companies in Connecticut, other states and other countries, Dodge said. More than 30 semifinalists have been selected, the majority from outside Connecticut, and CI expects to announce as early as this week the approximately 10 finalists who will compete in the event, to be hosted at Yale's School of Management in New Haven.

The companies must be generating revenue or at least have a customer testing their product.

WillowWorx’s next hurdles

Pitching can be intimidating to entrepreneurs, but Zanyk said it doesn't overwhelm her.

She describes herself as fearless, having bungee jumped in the Australian rain forest, swam with sharks and delivered an hour-long Ph.D. dissertation.

“I just know I have that skill,” she said.

Now she is hoping for her first outside capital infusion. She thinks the product can have applications in hospitals and other healthcare settings, and recently submitted WillowWorx for review to the shopping network QVC.

She also recently applied for grants and loans from the Department of Community and Economic Development, HEDCO and the Small Business Administration.

She's also hoping for private funds to raise just shy of $2 million, which will allow her to ramp-up production — hopefully in Connecticut — and generate more sales. She said she has sold a modest number of WillowWORX devices so far. They retail for $699.

“It takes time to acquire an investor; it's a tough thing to do,” said Zanyk, who has been self-funding product development as well as paying her small executive team, including Chief Marketing Officer Joe Grace, who co-founded Suzanne Somers' ThighMaster in the 1990s.

Though many investors nibble but eventually decline to bite, attending various entrepreneur networking and pitch events in Connecticut and in nearby states over the past year has boosted Zanyk's outlook on her prospects.

“I'm on the fringe of investments, I can feel it,” she said. In fact, she said a CI official called her after the Farmington event to talk about setting up a possible meeting.

Zanyk marvels at the seemingly random interactions that have led her to new connections, furthering her product's development and her contacts in her industry niche.

“I keep saying that I need a consumer products wellness expert and then 'boom,' minutes later I'm meeting them,” she said. “There seems to be this magical energy.”

Now she just needs to translate it into investments.

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Eight countries represented in CI's $5M VentureClash