Entrepreneurship Summit

The objective of the Pitch the Summit competition is to provide Emory undergraduate students with the opportunity to learn how to effectively pitch an idea for a new venture. Winning individuals and teams will receive guidance, financial support, and in-kind contributions in order to move the venture forward.

An elevator pitch verbally outlines an entrepreneurial concept or idea in a short period of time. Participating individuals or teams will have the opportunity to pitch their idea to panels of judges, with the most successful pitches advancing through three rounds of competition.

Please review the competition pages for specific dates, rules, prizes, and other information. There is no cost to participate in the competition; please see the Competition Rules page for additional information about team composition, deliverable guidelines, and other competition rules.

There is no cost to participate in the competition; please see the Competition Rules page for additional information about team composition, deliverable guidelines, and other competition rules.

WILLIAM HOCKEY

Co-Founder, President and CTO at Plaid

William Hockey is the co-Founder, President and CTO at Plaid, the technology company providing the tools and access needed for the development of a fully modern, and digitally-enabled financial system. Plaid powers the financial experiences for a quarter of the US population and tens of thousands of developers across North America and Europe. After learning firsthand how difficult it was to build and scale a secure finance software, William and his co-founder Zach Perret started Plaid in 2012, creating a toolkit to encourage an inclusive and competitive ecosystem that drives innovation while protecting consumers’ financial data.

Plaid has raised over $300M in fundraising at over a $2.5b valuation and has witnessed exponential growth since its founding - today, one in four people in the US with bank accounts use Plaid. Prior to starting Plaid, William studied computer science and business at Emory University and worked as a consultant at Bain.

DAVID POLITIS

Founder, CEO BetterCloud

David Politis is the founder and CEO of BetterCloud, the first SaaS Management and Security platform, where he oversees the day-to-day activities of the company and is responsible for the overall product vision and business strategy. Over 2,500 companies in 60+ countries rely on BetterCloud for continuous event monitoring, threat remediation, and fully automated policy enforcement across their digital workplace. With 250+ employees in Atlanta, New York City, and San Francisco, BetterCloud has raised over $100 million to date from investors including Bain Capital Ventures and Accel. As a pioneer in the cloud services industry, David has vast experience launching and building high growth technology companies and an immense passion for enterprise cloud technology.

Before founding BetterCloud, David was an early employee of Cloud Sherpas (acquired by Accenture [NYSE: ACN]), a preeminent leader in cloud advisory and technology services. As the VP of SMB Solutions, David led Cloud Sherpas to become the leading cloud services partner to small and medium sized businesses worldwide. Prior to Cloud Sherpas, David was the founding employee and General Manager of Vocalocity (acquired by Vonage [NYSE: VG]), which he grew into one of the top providers of cloud PBX technology. As General Manager, David ran day to day operations and led the company’s product strategy.

David is a native of New York City and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Emory University. He has contributed to TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat, Forbes, The New York Times and others.

As Emory’s only undergraduate impact investing group, Emory Impact Investing Group (EIIG) promotes social impact in the local Atlanta community through targeted short-term debt investments to micro-entrepreneurs. EIIG provides an educational experience for its members by engaging them in all aspects of the entrepreneur selection and lending process, including fundraising, investment analysis, and loan monitoring.

Servicing loans of $5-10K at a 5% interest rate, with additional consulting services, the group works to improve the economic vitality of Atlanta by providing much needed capital and credit-building opportunities to local entrepreneurs who may not have access to traditional sources of capital. 

EIIG is currently working with entrepreneurs in Clarkston, East Lake, and Southside Atlanta communities through the Start:ME accelerator as well as the entrepreneurs in the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI), an accelerator formerly run by Mayor Kasim Reed. Through Start:ME and the WEI, EIIG identifies entrepreneurs that are ready to take their businesses to the next level. 

2019 ROUNDTABLE ENTREPRENEURS 

Eden Fesshazion

Eden Fesshazion, LLC

Eden Fesshazion is a Georgia licensed attorney and a member of the State Bar of Georgia since 2008. She is the owner and founding partner of Eden Fesshazion LLC, a general practice law firm. Attorney Fesshazion serves as a Board of Trustees for SACS, a non-profit organization. She has provided countless hours of community service, was a Freedom Writers Mentor, and has been recognized for pro bono service to the community by the AVLF, EACAG, MEEOTC, and Dehai. She is a multi-lingual attorney fluent in English, Tigrinya, and Amharic.

Kevin Rodgers

SHWAXX Laboratories, LLC

Kevin Rodgers is a Master Barber with 30+ years of experience, and is the creator and owner of SHWAXX Laboratories, a personal care company producing hair butters, creams, pomades, and gels. In 2017, SHWAXX was accepted into SE@G’s Start:ME accelerator, and awarded a $4,000.48 Peer Based Seed Investment Grant which was used to expand the product line from 1 product to 4 products and purchase booth space at hair shows to generate product sales.

Akissi Stokes

WUNDERgrubs

Akissi Stokes, an Emory alumni holding an economics and finance degree, is committed to the education and advocacy of entomophagy (eating bugs) to help address our planet’s environmental challenges. She is the founder and operator of WUNDERgrubs, an insect farm and bakery promoting insect agriculture manufactured into an alternative, healthy, and sustainable food source. Stokes was recently selected to become a Food Innovation Fellow with the Center for Civic Innovation, an Atlanta non-profit.

Find out more about Emory Impact Investing

Cyril Berdugo

Landis

Cyril Berdugo is the Co-founder of Landis, a VC-backed startup that helps renters become homeowners. Cyril is also a Managing Partner at Berd Industries, a global real estate investment firm and a Venture Partner at Stanford-focused Spike Ventures. Earlier, he was an investor at Fifth Wall Ventures, the largest real estate technology venture capital firm in the world where he invested in Opendoor and B8ta, and a Director at Crown Acquisitions, a NY-based real estate investment firm. Before joining Crown, he worked at Houlihan Lokey, where he advised companies on M&A, equity and debt capital markets, and restructuring transactions. Previously, he worked in Credit Trading at Citigroup. Throughout his career, he has completed over $10 billion in transactions. He is also now an advisor to early stage companies and a director at TP NYC, a real estate investor. He holds BBA from Emory University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Andrew Berman

Vowel

Andrew is an entrepreneur, angel investor and advisor to VC backed companies. Andrew is currently the CEO of Vowel, a stealth VC backed enterprise voice company.  Previously, Andrew co-founded and served as COO and Board Member of Nanit, a VC backed computer vision and artificial intelligence company whose first product is a smart baby monitor. Prior to this, Andrew worked as a Venture Capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners and a technology investment banker at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital. Andrew holds a BBA from Goizueta Business School and a MBA from the Wharton School.

Eden Chen

Fishermen Labs

Eden is a co-founder and a managing partner at Fishermen Labs, one of the fastest growing digital creative agencies in the US. Fishermen Labs has created AR experiences that have reached more than 500 million people, was named the 185th fastest private company in the US by Inc Magazine, and the 4th fastest growing company in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Eden has advised and built products for Snapchat, IAC, Walmart, Sony, the United Nations, Qualcomm, and countless startups and serves in strategic, design and technical roles. Eden is also the founder of Sonar Teams, an account management and team collaboration software.

Before this, Eden was the founder of Lightmark Capital, a Los Angeles based hedge fund. Prior to these ventures, he worked as an investment banker at Citigroup. Eden invests and sits on the board of numerous startups and nonprofits including Pioneers and SENE. He has been interviewed by Bloomberg and US News and has written for Venture Beat, and Entrepreneur magazine. Eden was selected as a part of Forbes’ 30 under 30, LA Business Journal's 20 in their 20’s, Emory Magazine’s 40 under 40, and was a TedX speaker. Eden graduated from Emory University.

Jonathan Ende

Seamless Docs

Jonathon is a serial entrepreneur and currently CEO of SeamlessDocs, one of the leading govtech companies. He is incredibly passionate about government innovation and digital inclusion. He is dedicated to bringing his diverse and creative skill set and applying all his resources to truly changing the way that government works and making the web more accessible.

Recently Jonathon was named 342 in the Inc 5000 for tremendous growth. He has been honored by the GREAT Tech Awards winning a grant from the British Government and even receiving the award from Prince William and Mayor DeBlasio of NYC. He has also been appointed a NYC Venture Fellow by the NYEDC and the 92Y and won the prestigious NextCity Vanguard Award, the Grand Prize Winner of $100K at TechWeek NYC and winner of Code for America Technology Award for Government Innovation.

He also was a member of the prestigious Entrepreneur Roundtable Accelerator and Code for America Accelerator Program and is a member of the Urban.Us, 1776, and Govtech Fund portfolio and networks.

Jonathon is excited to continue being a trailblazer within both the Govtech and AccessTech communities. He believes that interacting with your government can be a beautiful experience and that the web should be a place built for everyone!

David Gaspar

DDG

David Gaspar serves as the Chief Operating Officer at DDG, an innovation consultancy that solves clients’ unique business challenges through digital transformation. He advises clients on digital monetization strategies across a broad range of industry verticals including publishing, new media and financial services.

As COO, David heads up two major client areas of focus: DDG’s private equity business, and its sports and event partnership and sponsorship business. He manages DDG’s relationship with IBM, where he advises IBM’s global partnership and sponsorship team across its portfolio which includes The Masters, The Grammy’s, and The US Open. In addition to IBM, David also works closely with MetLife, TIME, Convene, InvestCorp, and Crate & Barrel.

He is a thought leader on trends relating to the future of work, human capital engagement models and the development of Agile teams. He has spoken at various industry conferences including Hashtag Sports, the Experiential Marketing Summit and various ANA events.

David Gelbard

Parachute Health

David Gelbard, founder and CEO of Parachute Health, is revolutionizing the shockingly antiquated $50 billion medical equipment industry. He sought to create a more effective healthcare system after witnessing firsthand how an inefficient medical equipment industry is hurting patients. In 2015, David’s 80 year old father underwent critical back surgery. Unfortunately, Medicare’s failure to deliver a walker on time led to him reinjuring himself.

Since first launching in 2017, Parachute has rapidly expanded in select health markets thanks to strong demand from hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, managed care companies and medical offices. Prior to founding Parachute Health, David was as an investment professional at Falcon Investments, a firm focused on partnering with families and management teams to turn around and grow their businesses. When he was 26 years old, David took over day to day management of his family’s struggling pharmacy and small medical supply business. While working both fulltime in finance and at the pharmacy, David quickly seized on the opportunity to grow the business through incorporating technology into its sales and inventory systems. The family business is now profitable, and David has turned his attention to providing a world of healthcare with transparency, accountability and seamless communication.

Nathan Meeks

Gigzolo

Nathan Meeks is Co-Founder & CEO of Gigzolo, an event strategy platform trusted by marketers for Airbnb, Goldman Sachs, and WeWork among others.  Gigzolo's Event Strategy Concierge™ algorithm analyzes more than 14,000 past events to find strategies proven to work for a marketer’s audience (Virtual Reality Booth? Awesome DJ? Interactive Sushi Class?) then recommends results-focused, pre-vetted vendors to execute that vision. Nathan received a BBA from Goizueta Business School graduating with High Honors and was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to continue his work and studies in Mexico City. He began his professional career in investment banking, working in International Equities at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Colin McIntosh

Sheets & Giggles

Colin McIntosh  is the founder and CEO of Sheets & Giggles (S&G for short). S&G makes sustainable eucalyptus bed sheets that are naturally softer and more breathable than cotton, all while using up to 96% less water to make. In its first 8 months of business in 2018, S&G sold and shipped over 7,000 units of bedding, grossed $600,000 in sales, won first place at Denver Startup Week 2018, and raised a $645K pre-seed funding round in December 2018.

S&G was named a startup to watch in 2019 by Built in Colorado, and the company is growing quickly in order to shake up the (incredibly boring) $12B US bed linens market. Colin is currently going through the 2019 class of Techstars Boulder, a premier accelerator that helped launch major companies like ClassPass, PillPack, SendGrid, Sphero, and many more.

Alexandra Samit

Alexandra Beth Designs

Alexandra is owner and operator of her jewelry company, Alexandra Beth Designs. As a designer and entrepreneur, Alexandra understands the value of self-expression. She designs and brings to market a custom collection that features ultra-soft materials, finished metals and natural gemstones of soft colors and brilliant hues. She takes great pleasure in bringing joy to others with her designs, and in this way hopes to help others find their fullest expressions, too. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Alexandra has earned an international following with features in fashion media around the world. She graduated from the Goizueta Business School in 2009 and moved directly to New York City, renting a showcase at a designer's collective in Soho where she sold her first pieces. Soon after she began selling at Henri Bendel, Bloomingdale's and many other retailers worldwide. Currently, she manages a team of 9 sales people, seven days a week, at her two NYC pop ups in Chelsea Market and Soho.

Josh Sigel

Lasso Ventures

Josh is the founder of Lasso Ventures, a first-of-its-kind venture management (VM) platform. Pioneering Venture Management, Lasso is a hybrid between a VC, private equity, and a consultancy. Lasso focuses on serving and building early to growth stage start-ups, and large corporations focused on the food & beverage and health & wellness industries through strategic investment, venture management and innovation services, and its event platform. In addition to Lasso, Josh has joined forces with Tyler Florence, a Twenty-five-year hospitality veteran, television host, and cookbook author, to create T+J Ventures (TJV).  TJV is positioned to become a disruptive force across the food industry, opening its first significant restaurant project later this year with other ongoing projects in the works across the hospitality, emerging food, and entertainment spaces.

A leading authority on emerging food brands, food retail, hospitality, supply chain, food tech and omni-commerce, Josh is passionate about the future of food and believes continued innovation in this space will help people eat and live better. Josh is also passionate about solving the problem of food waste and continues to bring that into focus across his work. Sigel also serves as an advisor and investor in a number of food and technology-related start-ups.  Josh graduated with honors from Emory University Goizueta School of Business with a Bachelors in Business Administration majoring in Decision and Information Analysis, Consulting and Venture Management.  Josh resides in San Francisco, California with his fiancé Inha.

Todd Richheimer

Lawfty Law LLP

Todd Richheimer Esq is the founder and CEO of Lawfty Law LLP, a DC-based law firm, and Lawfty LLC, a technology company that develops advertising technology specific to the legal space. Together, Todd’s two companies are changing the way lawyers practice law, partner with third party vendors, use technology, and aggregate data. Lawfty is currently in 30 states and plans to be nationwide by year end.

Prior to founding Lawfty, Todd worked for a global investment bank (Bear Stearns), for several senatorial and presidential political candidates, and as a commercial litigator for the largest law firm in the world (Dentons). Todd earned his BBA from Emory University and his law degree from Wash U in St. Louis. He is licensed to practice law in DC, NY and NJ.

Sarah Van Dell

Plum Relish

Sarah Van Dell is the CEO and Founder of Plum Relish, a next-generation software and service provider for independent restaurants. Previously, Sarah spent ten years in account management, finance, and marketing roles across Beijing, New York, and Washington, DC. Until 2015, she served as a Senior Director at The Advisory Board Company, now a a division of Optum's UnitedHealth Group. Sarah earned her MBA from New York University and her BA from Emory University.

Sarah is an expert on food and tech and has contributed to panels for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Aspen Institute, Kayo Women in Private Equity and Venture Capital, Food + Tech Connect, and General Assembly.