Six finalists chosen for EAP/LSUS Pilot Pitch competition

Six finalists have been selected to move to the Final Pitch round of Pilot Pitch, the inaugural pitch competition to be hosted on the campus of Louisiana State University Shreveport.

BRF’s Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program (EAP) is partnering with LSUS for the competition, sponsored by LSUS, EAP and its parent organization BRF, the Committee of One Hundred, Davis and Bujold and Segue Science Management.

The Final Pitch event, in which the six finalists will present a seven-minute pitch of their “big idea” to a panel of judges, takes place Nov. 16, corresponding with Global Entrepreneurship Week, a worldwide celebration of entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The local competition has been open to all LSUS students and faculty.

The finalists are:

ShaVanety Jones, of Shreveport, a graduate student and founder of Owl-Nighter, an extended hours student center for the LSUS campus;

Payne Mitchell, of Shreveport, a graduate student and the founder of The Local Cookie, a locally sourced and deliverable fresh cookie business with a corresponding app for ease of order and delivery;

Noah Riggs, of Shreveport, a freshman and founder of 318 Café, an organic café with a philanthropic tipping system to fund city projects;

Colin Moran, of Karnack, Texas, a junior and founder of Pickup, a social app for sports fanatics to meet;

Tyler Crochet, of Bossier City, a junior and founder of Muze Pop, a subscription-based digital comic magazine featuring creatives and writers from LSUS;

And Patrick Desamours, of Marlboro, Maryland, an online graduate student and founder of AgriMet (Transformation Through Agriculture), a Haitian eggs project focused on sustainability and job growth for the Haitian people.

The six will present their business plans to a panel of judges, competing for the top $3,000 cash prize; the second place $1,000 cash prize, and the third place $500 cash prize. The three top winners will receive EAP services, which include assistance with business plans, financial analysis and modeling, market analysis, market and industry research, and help finding funding opportunities – whether through banks, grants or angel investors.

The top 20 participants who made it to the workshop phase, Phase II, will receive scholarships to enter the Louisiana Startup Prize 2018.

For more information about EAP, visit www.eapla.com. For more information about the Pilot Pitch competition, visit www.pilotpitchla.com.