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Knoxville Business News Tennessee Mountain Scenery Background
January 20, 2016 | Tom Ballard

Six teams selected for this weekend’s “What’s the Big Idea” event

Big Idea 2016Forty-eight applied for this year’s 48-hour “What’s the Big Idea” event, and six have been selected for the “race” that begins at 6 p.m. Friday (January 22).

At that time, the half-dozen teams will pitch their ideas to an audience of specialists and mentors. They will then be assigned a team to help them move their ideas from concept to launch-ready over the next two days with the finale pitch event set to run from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Scruffy City Hall.

By 8 p.m. Sunday, one of the six will be declared the winner, receiving a package that includes access to a $10,000 grant applicable to start-up reimbursement costs, office space, and complimentary business services.

“What’s the Big Idea” is presented by The Development Corporation of Knox County, Knoxville Chamber, Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC), and Tech 2020.

The six and their entrepreneurial leaders are:

  • ABA Pocket Interventions (Ryan Ginder and Brian Gill), an app and web-based program to make applied behavior analysis (ABA) treatment implementation more parent and staff-friendly;
  • Farm2Table (Jason Hanna & Doug McDaniel), a mobile web portal that aggregates locally-grown produce, providing a purchasing format and an online marketplace to connect local buyers with information and products;
  • Grow Bioplastics, LLC (Tony Bova and Jeff Beegle), a team focused on improving agriculture by providing farmers a cost-competitive solution to oil-based mulch films with renewable, biodegradable plastics;
  • Impact Solutions (Don Den Uyl, Todd Daniell, and Thomas Hackbarth), a tea, providing a proprietary method of fall detection to provide faster care response and improved outcomes in the home health, assisted living, and nursing home environment;
  • ProseWire (Jonathan Holley, Stacy Holley, and Joshua Holley), a digital marketplace of content to connect publishers and writers; and
  • Switch Stream (Joe Consumo, Collin Bell, Greg Knox, and Brian Gajus), a live video-streaming app that allows users to view and control multiple live streams broadcasted from other app users within the same geo location.

“Once again, we had a great collection of applicants to choose from,” said Emily Skaar, KEC’s Director of Entrepreneurship. “It’s so exciting to see the caliber of companies applying to ‘What’s the Big Idea’ continue to rise.”

Those interested in attending the finale should pre-register at this link.


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