TechCelerator Awards $10,000 to Entrepreneur Boot Camp Graduate

An entrepreneur who developed an energy-efficient smart lighting system for use in film, television and photography received a $10,000 award from the Ben Franklin TechCelerator@StateCollege.

Joel Edelstein with Triglyph was the winner among six entrepreneurs who gave business startup training had gone through TechCelerator’s 10-week Business Startup Boot Camp for entrepreneurs program targeting tech startups. Each of the six presenters explained the market they planned to enter, the problem their product or service will solve and how their idea will make money for them and potential investors.

A panel of judges from the local community decided on the winning presentation.

‘For the past 10 weeks, all the participants gave it their all,’ TechCelerator director Don McCandless said. ‘This process is not an easy one and we consider everyone who gets to the end a winner. Everyone did a great job, and I’d like to applaud the collective effort.’

The other presenters included

– Jack Chernega with AbDisc, which developed a wearable-tech device to address the health issues caused by “Sitting Disease,’ which refers to the metabolic syndrome and effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

– Amit Sharma with DeZI, which developed a smart phone app capable of creating supply-chain links between local farmers and food retail establishments.

– John Stogin with Scribble Online, which developed a drawing app that allows multiple users to write on the same virtual page and talk to each other through VoIP.

– Beth Kirchgessner with Sights LLC, which developed an easy-to-use card pack for teachers and parents to provide more effective instruction for the first 200 most common “sight” words.

– Matt Woods with X Materials Processing, which developed a low-cost metal 3D printing system with multi-material processing capabilities.

Participants from the Pennsylvania Angel Network meeting at Innovation Park attended the TechCelerator graduation event , followed by a networking event. The Pennsylvania Angel Network is an organization serving the angel investor community in Pennsylvania and attendees represented 10 investor groups.

The TechCelerarator@StateCollege, located in Innovation Park, is a partnership among several area economic development providers that offers budding entrepreneurs space, loan and investment programs, business support and mentoring services, and entrepreneurial training. Ben Franklin Technology Partners is a Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development initiative and funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority to provide investment capital, operational assistance, and entrepreneurial support to emerging tech-based companies and small, existing manufacturers to create and retain jobs in the Commonwealth.