COSE Small Business Pitch Showcases Ohio Entrepreneurs

ABC’s Shark Tank started in 2009 with investors looking to find the next big thing. It has garnered a following of entrepreneurs, dreamers, doers, and people who truly believe in themselves and their product. Average people with an idea they brought to fruition come into The Tank and pitch their concept to a panel of businessmen and women who have proven success in their respective fields. Some times the Sharks believe in the entrepreneur’s dreams and invest, and often times they pass on the commodity of these business hopefuls.

Fast forward to 2014 and The Council of Smaller Enterprises, also known as COSE, can attest that people want to see business competition, and they are making it happen for the third year in a row. The setting may not be the glitz and the glam of TV network studio, but a safari themed oasis in Sandusky, Ohio known as Kalahari Resorts & Convention.

COSE brings their Small Business Convention to Kalahari every October and the COSE Business Pitch Competition is one of the highlights of the convention. After several months and a few rounds of competition, the finals are set in a similar style to SharkTank. The prizes vary from $5,000 for third and fourth place, $10,000 for second, and a grand prize of $20,000 to the first place winner.

Rock The House provides audio, lighting, video, and our social media wall known as SocialCast to the three-day convention. During this time we get to showcase what we do best while enjoying the stories of other small business in the Northeast Ohio area.

This year brought out four very diverse finalists – Brewnuts, Colby Featherbottom’s Custom Sound Machines, Consult Mango, and The Digital Mosaic.

Each of the company’s leaders is allowed 15 minutes to present their product to a panel of judges, answer questions from the judges, and field a Q&A with the audience. After that hour has passed, the judges gather to discuss to select a winner for the $20,000 prize.

The first pitch was from Eric Vennaro of Consult Mango. Eric and his company have a strong belief in the education for international students wanting to learn in America. Consult Mango is an advertising platform that helps colleges and universities post ads and create content on international social media.

The second pitch came from Shelley Fasulko of Brewnuts. Shelley began her company with fiancé John Pippin about a year ago. By combining two of America’s favorite things, beer and donuts, you can bet Brewnuts is one sweet deal. They are putting a whole new spin on bar food, and hope to open their permanent location in Ohio City next year.

Thirdly came Ryan Schoeneman of Colby Featherbottom’s Custom Sound Machines. Ryan believes in creating custom guitars at a lower cost and a quicker turn around time. His pitch fits perfectly with a city like Cleveland – the heart of Rock and Roll.

Finally came Natalie Bauman of The Digital Mosaic. Natalie is bringing her innovative approach of video storytelling to families, senior living facilities and senior communities. Her app will help catalog family stories, one moment at a time.

The judges came back from recess, and offered advice to each individual before selecting the winner.

Tied for third place and each taking home $5,000 were The Digital Mosiac and Consult Mango.

After a moment of suspense, Brewnuts was announced as the second place winner of $10,00 and Colby Featherbottom’s Custom Sound Machines became the COSE Small Business Pitch contest winner of $20,000.

Each leader was gleaming with joy for their prize while the handshakes and congratulations came bustling to each of the four contestants. The night is surely a memorable one for each company, and each business is sure to thrive in the coming year.

Business Pitch Competition

Rock The House is at Kalahari Resorts for the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) Small Business Convention all week. As a Gold Sponsor, Rock The House is committed to the cause of COSE which is growing small businesses like us in our region. As the Audio/Video/Production company for the event, we are thrilled to have a client like COSE who has let us do what we do best – create lasting experiences for guests at our events.

The first day is the soft opening of the convention and centers around one of the week’s most exciting features – a business pitch competition where $40,000 in cash is given between four finalists. These finalists had to go through a few rounds to get to this live competition to see who has the best pitch and to win the grand prize of $20,000! Have you ever seen the TV Show Shark Tank? That’s the style of this competition but the drama was heightened because this was live in front of some of the best entrepreneurs in the region. The finalists shared many traits in common but the most compelling was that each of these business ideas were personal. These business owners were faced with very real problems at different points in their lives and created creative solutions with sustainable growth models. They did their homework and it was a VERY tight race.

What made this competition so prestigious was the level of judges that COSE put together. Judges included

I’m sure you are dying to hear who the finalists were and what place they came in. Well, the judges found the contest so close that they offered the finalists the opportunity to split the $40,000 evenly if they unanimously came to that consensus. They opted to go for it all and the judges verdicts came to pass.

The four finalists were:

4th Place -Deb Stanzak founder of Ron Wear, clothing with ports, made to enhance the quality of life through comfortable and dignified fashion.

3rd Place – Nichelle N. McCall founder of Bold Guidance, software that makes college applications easy for students.

2nd Place – Erika Boll founder of The Toasted Oat which is a VERY tasty gluten-free granola snack.

1st Place – Daniel Mansoor founder of GiveNext. GiveNext is an easy way for donors and nonprofits to manage charitable giving.

Rock The House is honored to have provided the sound and lighting for this really exciting competition. This is only the first day of what is shaping up to be a very exciting week at Kalahari.