Oklahoma entrepreneurs pitch ideas for capital
BY DON MECOY
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Published: October 27, 2009
Pitching was the featured activity during Monday’s Bricktown Capital Conference.
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Two companies win awards
as state ‘Venture of the Year’
Monday’s "Venture of the Year” award was a dead heat.
Acorn Growth Cos. and PL Studios were honored by the Oklahoma Venture Fund at the conclusion of the group’s Bricktown Capital Conference in Oklahoma City.
Acorn Growth Cos. is a private equity firm focused exclusively on aerospace and defense. The Oklahoma City firm has more than $100 million under management and operating companies across the United States with operations worldwide.
PL Studios, based in downtown Oklahoma City, creates training for programs associated with creating video games, commercials, special effects and some of Hollywood’s biggest movies.
The "Most Promising New Business” award was presented to Oklahoma ProCure Management, which recently established a 55,000-square-foot cancer treatment center in northwest Oklahoma City. The $120 million facility, which opened July 8, can treat about 1,500 patients a year.
The Venture of the Year award is for companies established 10 years or less; the Most Promising New Business is for firms launched within the past three years.
But the pitches came from a podium rather than a mound, and the pitchers were entrepreneurs, not athletes.
For several hours,
Oklahoma business people paraded to the lectern and sought to persuade investors that their products, services and companies were poised to capture a market, a niche, or a concept in a way that would eventually be profitable.
Drugs aimed at treating hearing loss or glaucoma, state-of-the-art exercise equipment, a device to install geothermal heat pumps more efficiently and liquid dietary supplements for pets were among the 10-minute proposals offered up at the
Bricktown Capital Conference held in downtown
Oklahoma City.
Blaine Stansel, business development manager of local drug manufacturer Charlesson, said officials from the Oklahoma City company regularly attend such conferences seeking to make contacts and secure funding.
"It is a challenge, especially right now,” Stansel said. "Some venture funds are a little hesitant to put money into anything right now. They just kind of hold it until they find out what’s going on with the market.”
Networking is the best way to meet folks who are vital for early-stage companies seeking funds from private investors, he said. A recent acquisition has already boosted Charlesson’s profile, he said.
"I can definitely tell that things are turning around,” he said. "We’ve gotten a lot better reception recently.”
Joe T. Moore, president of
Angel Foods International, plans to sell a variety of dry stabilized food products that are made possible by technology developed by
Niels Maness, an
Oklahoma State University professor.
"We want to sell this across the country, and keep jobs in Oklahoma,” Moore said.
Moore’s business will offer cilantro, basil, spinach, mushrooms and jalapenos that have been treated to stay fresh and flavorful for years. The products were offered Monday at the conference in plastic containers much like those seasonings are sold in.
For those too impatient to sit through a 10-minute proposal, the
University of Oklahoma’s technology transfer group offered 100-second "elevator pitches,” including an
iPhone application called RadarScope that offers real-time weather radar images, and a vaccine that prevents gum disease in dogs and cats.
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