Valley Venture Mentors: What Can You Tell Us in Two Minutes?

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The pitchers are ready with their two-minute pitches at the VMM meeting in Greenfield last night.
The pitchers are ready with their two-minute pitches at the VMM meeting in Greenfield last night.
jibe VVM
Ahmed Nabih is an inventor who created JIBE, a thermostat similar to the Nest which switches between electric and oil heat. He has already been through the mentor process and has been successful and got a patent.
Jamie Cocco.
Jamie Cocco gave a rousing presentation but it was not clear what his business does…which in two minutes can be a big problem.

What can you tell me about your business in two minutes?

That was the challenge tonight when Valley Venture Mentors met for the first time in Franklin County, bringing 10 entrepreneurs nursing their own small businesses and hoping for attention and funding to the John Olver Transit Center for some good old fashioned networking.

First, Paul Silva set the stage. “We want to know whose ass you’ve kicked!” he said, his enthusiasm evident from the very start. “We have gotten $4 million in investments for start-ups in the Valley since the beginning of 2015!” he added. Clearly there is a great need for opportunities to bring bright young talents together with the connections and possible funding they need.

Tonight the start-ups lined up for a chance to give their 2-minute elevator pitch–a Deerfield chicken and turkey farmer, a martial arts school, a man from Ashfield who has invented a home heating system that runs on restaurant fryer oil, a woodworker, and a guy who pitched something about leadership but I didn’t quite make out what he was doing.  The quality of the pitches ranged from, ‘oh, yeah I get it!’ to ‘hmm, what exactly do you do anyway?’   But all were entertaining as was the chance to meet the enthusiastic idea-hatchers with their diverse plans for a bright future.

I hope that the Valley Venture Mentors return to Greenfield. They got a great reception and who knows? Maybe some of these elevator pitches will turn into connections to help all of these nascent businesses grow and prosper.