On May 24, the Ben Franklin TechCelerator@State College graduated a six-team cohort from its 10-week Business Startup Boot Camp. Don McCandless, TechCelerator director, opened the graduation ceremony and introduced the six presenters. Each team leader presented in front of three judges and a crowd of about 80 people, including representatives from ten angel investor groups from the Pennsylvania Angel Network.

Bob Irori, Paul Sciabica, and Marty Bradley, local entrepreneurs, judged the presentations, awarding the $10,000 grand prize to Joel Edelstein of Triglyph.  

Each graduate had eight minutes to present his or her company, describing the technology, need, benefits, challenges, competition, and outlook. After every presentation was a seven-minute Q&A session.

First to present was Jack Chernega, who designed the core fitness tracker AbDisc to fend off sitting disease, a metabolic syndrome that is becoming a widespread threat to health as Americans spend more and more time seated daily. AbDisc differs from standard fitness trackers in that it is worn inside the waistband and vibrates periodically to remind the wearer to practice low intensity physical activity (LIPA) that can improve posture and prevent disease.

Amit Sharma then presented DeZI, a local food “matchmaker” platform designed to connect small and medium-sized farms with fine dining restaurants. Sharma’s objective is to reduce supply chain inefficiencies and information asymmetry, in addition to creating a mutual feedback mechanism.

Beth Kirchgessner took the podium to describe the mission of her company Sights, LLC: “Little Card Packs, Big Difference.” The longtime schoolteacher is producing card packs for use in kindergarten through second grade classrooms to improve students’ analytic abilities regarding words and sounds, phonemic awareness, and rhyming skills with leveled, incremental instruction, picture cues, and social interaction. Kirchgessner has seen remarkable results using Sights cards in her own classroom over the past few years, and hopes to broaden those results by taking the product to market.

John Stogin is a mathematician finishing his PhD at Princeton who recognized the need for collaborative software suited not solely for videoconferencing or document sharing, but a combination of the two while communicating with cross-country fellows via Skype. This spawned the development of Scribble Online, novel software to be used in conjunction with existing hardware to allow professors, graduate students, and eventually a broader market, to exchange ideas efficiently and affordably.

Joel Edelstein, fifth presenter and winner of the grand prize, introduced his company Triglyph, which is “making the light of the future.” With an extensive background in the television and film industry, Edelstein is all too familiar with the lack of progress in the world of light technology over the past few decades. Triglyph is bringing a portable, convenient lighting option to market that is suited for photographers and cinematographers. The product, Chiara, has been prototyped and is nearing beta stage.

Last to present was Matt Woods of X Material Processing (XMP), who has stepped into the world of additive manufacturing with the development of a multi-metal 3-D printer. Woods, who founded XMP as an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at Penn State, believes he will be able to offer multi-metal printing technology at a fraction of the cost of current market leaders. He is currently building the first prototype in the Technology Center at Innovation Park.

To date, the Ben Franklin TechCelerator@State College has graduated 52 teams. Of these, 47 have formed or are forming companies, and 33 have been based on Penn State technologies.

For Joel Edelstein, winner of the most recent TechCelerator session, the resources made available during the 10-week Startup Boot Camp enabled him to stay aware of the big picture. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in the engineering side,” said Edelstein, describing a common challenge for tech startup founders. “The TechCelerator reminded me to go back to the client base regularly and check in with their needs.”

Ben Franklin offers incubator space for 11 tenants complete with transformation services like strategic planning, market research, financial management, HR and accounting services, and more.