Five successful entrepreneurs who bring jobs and innovations came to the Maryland Association of Counties conference this year. The entrepreneurs represented five sectors of industry defined by StartUp Maryland: Cyber; Manufacturing; Rural Innovations; Health/Life Sciences; and Social Breakthrough.
Driven from within the startup community and led by/for entrepreneurs, Startup Maryland is peer-driven and focused on high-growth ventures. Forged on the themes spawned by national initiatives, Startup Maryland strives to connect innovation communities. Startup Maryland rallies entrepreneurs, supporters and other innovation stakeholders around four main mission themes: Celebration | Coaching | Curation | Capital.
At MACo’s pitch competition, 5 business leaders were joined by five representatives of industry sectors to pitch their sector and start-up as the next big thing for the ‘old line state.’ An audience of more than 100 county government officials and conference attendees selected a fan favorite based on: passion of the pitch, potential for job growth, collaboration with other businesses within the sector, and funding.
An expert panel of judges, including Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, economic development guru Julie Lenzer of the University of Maryland, and investor and entrepreneur Bruce McIndoe of iJet grilled the pitchers on their business concepts and ultimately decided a winner.
The Health/Life Sciences category and Mike Geppi, CEO of Timbre Tech, Inc were selected as the best bet for Maryland. Geppi’s Timbre Tech advances modern medicine with a technology that enhances the precision and improves the safety of CAT scans, while taking advantage of Maryland’s anchor institutions in health — The University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins.
As winner of the competition, the Health/Life Sciences business sector will be the subject of a dedicated educational session at an upcoming Maryland Association of Counties Conference.
Timbre Tech’s radiation detection with direct gamma detection reduces time in tunnels for protons therapy patients and creates sharper images for doctors. This new method of radiation detection is smaller, faster, better, and safer. www.timbre-tech.com
Every business leader and sector representative came ready to impress and represented the strength of Maryland’s entrepreneurial spirit.
Pitches included:
Silent Circle is a secure communications firm offering enterprise communications solutions including software, devices, and services. The Silent Circle Enterprise Mobile Privacy Platform offers a modular, zero-touch, simple deployment with no maintenance, no hardware, and no additional manpower. “Blanket your organization with trusted communications.” www.silentcircle.com
Semforex is a ballistics performance apparel company that designs, manufactures, and markets innovative performance apparel and protective equipment for first responders. Semforex, Inc is a minority, veteran-owned company formed in Maryland in 2012. The Semforex mission is “. . .to help protect those who give their best to protect all of us.” www.semforex.com
Quidient is headquartered on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Its mission is to supply business and government customers with the best scene reconstruction engines (SREs) on the planet, thereby enabling users of their systems to realize the remarkable benefits of 3D imaging in their personal and professional lives. Scene Reconstruction Engines (SREs) are the “digital brains” of 3D imaging devices such as mobile phones and augmented reality (AR) glasses. www.quidient.com
The Cohado game seeks to teach that all have a responsibility to utilize resources, connections, energy, voices and power to usher in an age of relationship, understanding and connectedness. “Play It Forward!”
https://cohado.com