Happy Valley VC Pitch Competition Welcomes Students to the Entrepreneurial Community
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – On Monday, April 4, Happy Valley VC and Innoblue hosted a celebration of Penn State’s entrepreneurial community, including a pitch competition with some of Penn State’s most innovative student startups.
The pitch competition included six students, each competing for $25,000 in non-dilutive funding. There was a panel of judges that questioned each contestant after their pitch, then went into deliberation to vote for the best sales pitch.
Along with the $25,000, students voted for their favorite pitch to award additional funding through the People’s Choice Award.
In third place came Ballet Scout (CEO Robert Fulton), second place was Limitless NIL (CEO Sean Clifford) and first place was Table Rock Markets (CEO Jake Grim).
Grim hopes to solve the digital issues facing the agricultural industry.
“Table Rock Markets enables farmers to meet the new digital standard by allowing them to acquire new customers by leveraging digital tools built for farmers by farmers. Our online platforms go hand in hand with local farms that generate about $5 million in annual sales, which has made it seamless for other farmers to begin selling online with our service for very little technical ability,” Grim said.
Table Rock Markets won both the pitch competition and the People’s Choice award.
The president of Innoblue, Hayden Long, said he wants to introduce Penn State students to the entrepreneurial community.
“At Innoblue, what we try to do is provide you with the first stop by students for students to get introduced to the Penn State entrepreneurial ecosystem and provide a social outlet for founders to share what they are doing for one another,” Long said.
These events are part of Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC and will be hosting events through Friday, April 8.
The schedule can be found at strartupweek.psu.edu.
Haley Jacobs is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email haj5104@psu.edu.
