PartyRVA took the stage as one of the winners of the annual i.e. Startup Competition. Photos by Michael Thompson.
A local party planning website and a computer coding education company took top honors Tuesday night at the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce’s fourth annual i.e. Startup Competition.
PartyRVA and CodeVA each beat out six other startup hopefuls and won $10,000 apiece for first place in their respective categories at the event, held at Richmond CenterStage.
PartyRVA, a website that connects party planners with local businesses, won top honors for next best startup, and CodeVA won for best social entrepreneur.
Ginger Juice, a cold press juice company, received $2,500 for winning the people’s choice award.
The Chamber provided the prize money for the best startup, and The Community Foundation, a local organization that promotes philanthropy, financed the award for the social innovation category. First Capital Bank sponsored the people’s choice prize money.
CodeVa, a startup aimed at teaching kids about computer coding, also won a $10,000 prize.
Nate Marcus of PartyRVA said he’d use the prize money to start a gift certificate program for his site.
In addition to the cash prizes, PartyRVA and CodeVA won six months of free downtown office space at New Richmond Ventures, six months of co-working space at 804RVA on West Broad Street, website strategy and internet hosting services from GroundWork Design and mentoring from Lighthouse Labs.
To participate in the competition, entrants had to be based in the Richmond region and have either a “viable startup concept” or have launched a startup within the last year, according to the competition’s website. Tenant Turner, an online screening tool for landlords, won top honors last year.
There were nearly 60 startups that applied to participate. Five were selected as finalists by a group of local entrepreneurs, and the rest were voted in through an online public vote. Nearly 4,000 votes were cast. The event was free to attend and open to the public.
The finalists made their pitches to a panel of judges made up of Shawn Boyer, co-founder and principal at Gazzow and founder of Die Happy; Marti Beller, co-founder and president of Plan G; Will Loving, CEO of Altron Corp. and chairman of the Altron Foundation; Ting Xu, creator and president of Evergreen Enterprises; Vanessa Diamond, director and co-founder of HandsOn Greater Richmond and vice president of The Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence; Maurice Jones, secretary of commerce for the commonwealth of Virginia; Sam Young, president at Astyra; and Aaron Montgomery, co-founder and COO of CarLotz.
804RVA is also offering six months of coworking space to the other 12 finalists.
The rest of the finalists are listed below.
Best Startup
Before3 Inc.
Ginger Juice
Marilyn & Michelle
MedNav Inc.
Richmond Rides Bicycle Tours
SecuriChecks
Best Social Entrepreneur
BrushForGood.org
News Network Jr.
Teer’d
Uvest Solar
VocalLocal
WatchForChange
PartyRVA took the stage as one of the winners of the annual i.e. Startup Competition. Photos by Michael Thompson.
A local party planning website and a computer coding education company took top honors Tuesday night at the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce’s fourth annual i.e. Startup Competition.
PartyRVA and CodeVA each beat out six other startup hopefuls and won $10,000 apiece for first place in their respective categories at the event, held at Richmond CenterStage.
PartyRVA, a website that connects party planners with local businesses, won top honors for next best startup, and CodeVA won for best social entrepreneur.
Ginger Juice, a cold press juice company, received $2,500 for winning the people’s choice award.
The Chamber provided the prize money for the best startup, and The Community Foundation, a local organization that promotes philanthropy, financed the award for the social innovation category. First Capital Bank sponsored the people’s choice prize money.
CodeVa, a startup aimed at teaching kids about computer coding, also won a $10,000 prize.
Nate Marcus of PartyRVA said he’d use the prize money to start a gift certificate program for his site.
In addition to the cash prizes, PartyRVA and CodeVA won six months of free downtown office space at New Richmond Ventures, six months of co-working space at 804RVA on West Broad Street, website strategy and internet hosting services from GroundWork Design and mentoring from Lighthouse Labs.
To participate in the competition, entrants had to be based in the Richmond region and have either a “viable startup concept” or have launched a startup within the last year, according to the competition’s website. Tenant Turner, an online screening tool for landlords, won top honors last year.
There were nearly 60 startups that applied to participate. Five were selected as finalists by a group of local entrepreneurs, and the rest were voted in through an online public vote. Nearly 4,000 votes were cast. The event was free to attend and open to the public.
The finalists made their pitches to a panel of judges made up of Shawn Boyer, co-founder and principal at Gazzow and founder of Die Happy; Marti Beller, co-founder and president of Plan G; Will Loving, CEO of Altron Corp. and chairman of the Altron Foundation; Ting Xu, creator and president of Evergreen Enterprises; Vanessa Diamond, director and co-founder of HandsOn Greater Richmond and vice president of The Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence; Maurice Jones, secretary of commerce for the commonwealth of Virginia; Sam Young, president at Astyra; and Aaron Montgomery, co-founder and COO of CarLotz.
804RVA is also offering six months of coworking space to the other 12 finalists.
The rest of the finalists are listed below.
Best Startup
Before3 Inc.
Ginger Juice
Marilyn & Michelle
MedNav Inc.
Richmond Rides Bicycle Tours
SecuriChecks
Best Social Entrepreneur
BrushForGood.org
News Network Jr.
Teer’d
Uvest Solar
VocalLocal
WatchForChange