Author Archive

Fall 2011 Idea Pitch

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Fall IdeaPitch 2011 hosted by the Business Builders Club and sponsored by TechColumbus was a success! 6 teams presented their awesome ideas ranging from campus bike rentals to an eharmony for job hunting. 3 teams took home a total of $3,500 in front of an audience of 75. With just under a dozen judges with backgrounds ranging from venture capitalists to business owners, the contestants surely got a first hand experience in attempting to raise capital for a new business. The winners are listed below:

1st Place Sponsored by the Nicholson Center:

Jelz-shots pitched by Chris Balzer and Chris Linderwell – “Jelz Shots is centered around creating a pre-packaged Jell-O shot which doesn’t require any refrigeration, is fun to drink and tastes delicious.”



2nd Place Sponsored by the Technology Commercialization and Knowledge Transfer Office:

Shortlist pitched by Curtis Rummel and Bryce Conway – “ShortList is seeking to solve the glaring inefficiency that occurs in the college graduate hiring process.”


3rd Place Sponsored by FastSwitch:

Roo pitched by Josh Glick – “Roo’s Stand offers clients an easy way to create, distribute, and profit from rich interactive content for the iPad and other touch devices.”

Thanks to all of our generous sponsors and those who attended the event. We look forward to seeing everyone again at the Winter IdeaPitch.

Bootcamp – From Idea to Launch

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Interested in the process of taking an idea to an actually profitable venture? This Tuesday at 7:30PM in the Ohio Union Senate Chamber we will be demonstrating and instructing fellow students on how they can effectively start their entrepreneurial idea. Steve Gacka and Zach Boerger are both pros at turning “napkin ideas” into realities. We are all about to benefit from their experiences and hopefully leave the meeting with more of an understanding of the start-up process.

Trident Designs

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

Matt Maroon

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Matt Maroon of Blue Frog Gaming will be speaking at our meeting Tuesday October 18, 2011 at 7:30 PM in the Ohio Union Senate Chamber. Matt has experience in the Y Combinator program, and is the founder of Blue Frog Gaming which is a company that develops games for social media sites. And yes, he was a professional poker player.

Ray Shealy – Serial Entrepreneur

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

We have a hell of a meeting planned for you! We are having one of our most versatile entrepreneurs and fellow buckeye, Ray Shealy in to speak this Tuesday October 11th at 7:30pm in the Ohio Union Senate Chamber. Ray has seen much success in companies ranging from high profile companies such as IBM to HTP, which is a leading health-care software firm. Ray led HTP’s transformation from a niche focused software company to an Inc. 500 & 2008 Health-care Informatics Top 100 company, which led to the company’s successful acquisition by a Fortune 20 company.

Jeff Harper from eproximiti

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Be sure to join us on Tuesday, October 4 @ 7:30 in the Ohio Union Senate Chamber to hear from Jeff Harper, President of eproximiti. Eproximiti is a mobile software products company with solutions in health care, metropolitan areas, and highly targeted consumer networks. They are mobile industry experts, and build proprietary applications as well as mobile products that scale to turn a profit for various industry leading clients.

Victor Thorne from Ohio TechAngels Fund

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

This week we will be hearing from Victor Thorne of TechColumbus. Victor is heavily involved in entrepreneurship here in Columbus through Brand Thunder, VactionView, and the Ohio Tech Angels Fund. Hopefully we’ll get to learn about both the trials tribulations of start-up companies and what investors look for in a new company. TechColumbus has been a big part of BBC, and our partnership has benefitted many students and entrepreneurs, you will not want to miss our last meeting of the quarter!

Spring 2011 Idea Pitch Competition

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Our signature event, IdeaPitch is simple: you pitch your idea to our stellar panel of judges, they give you invaluable feedback, and, if you have one of the top three pitches, we’ll cut you a big fat check – $1500, $1000 and $500 to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, respectively. Get pumped.

Kevin Gadd from Venture Highway

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Kevin Gadd will be visiting the BBC on Tuesday, May 17 at 7:30pm in the Ohio Union Senate Chamber. Kevin is the Founder and CEO of Venture Highway, which provides a wide variety of valuable resources and consulting to entrepreneurs who want to start, grow, and eventually exit their own business. Kevin is also a Principal at IPH Partners and the Director of IT Commercialization at TechColumbus. Kevin has a strong business background and was the co-founder of an IT company which was acquired in 2005. He graduated with an MBA from Franklin University and received a B.A. in German from Ohio State.

Brent Voss from Key Bank

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Brent Voss, the Branch Manager for the new Key Bank being constructed on High St. across of the Union, will be visiting to tell us about the wide variety of banking issues that new entrepreneurs face. He’s also going to share a sweet deal that Key is offering to BBC members who use Key for their business banking!