Ben Franklin News
Signallamp Health, Scranton, won Ben Franklin Venture Idol, hosted by the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/NEP), on Thursday evening, November 8. The event was held in the newly expanded Ben Franklin TechVentures® West Wing. TechVentures is the business technology incubator/post-incubator owned and managed by BFTP/NEP and located on Lehigh University’s Mountaintop Campus.
Ken Okrepkie, BFTP/NEP Regional Manager, Pocono Northeast; Andy Goldberg, Signallamp Co-Founder; Drew Kearney, Signallamp CEO; Chad Paul, BFTP/NEP President and CEO
Signallamp Health (SLH) is an IT-enabled care management provider that works as an extension of the physician practice, targets new and untapped sources of Medicare revenue, and helps practices prepare for the certain changes in reimbursement that will reward value over volume. SLH has more than 1,000 doctors under contract, representing 78,000 eligible patients.
Ben Franklin Venture Idol is a cross between Shark Tank® and American Idol®. The event illustrates a significant way in which early-stage entrepreneurs seek and obtain seed capital.
Approximately 300 guests attended Venture Idol, which included pre- and post-event executive networking receptions. Seven entrepreneurs from Ben Franklin’s portfolio were selected as competitors. In addition to Signallamp, the 2018 Ben Franklin Venture Idol competitors were
- ConnexiCore, Milford
- Game Face Products, ESU Innovation Center, East Stroudsburg
- Grovara, LLC, Philadelphia (graduate of Ben Franklin TechVentures)
- HootBoard, Ben Franklin TechVentures, Bethlehem
- Rocket Cloud, Inc., Ben Franklin TechVentures, Bethlehem
- Universal Cross-Connection Control, Ben Franklin TechVentures, Bethlehem.
Company descriptions and logos are at http://sites.ennect.com/e5895/p26043.aspx. Three of the seven start-up technology companies, Grovara, HootBoard, and Signallamp, earned their way to finalist status in a round of judging in the afternoon prior to the event.
Following a networking session beginning at 5:30 PM, Ben Franklin Venture Idol began with a simulated “deal negotiation,” facilitated by investment banker and Lehigh University professor, Dale Falcinelli. The television show Shark Tank® has brought the art of venture capital investing into everyone’s living room. But only 27% of the “deals” that are shown on-air actually happen at the agreed-upon terms, and nearly half never happen at all. Venture capitalist, Doug Petillo, General Partner, Leading Edge Ventures, and founder, Michael Stocker, CEO, Snowvation, Inc., demonstrated what this post-deal negotiation looks like.
Investment banker and Lehigh University professor, Dale Falcinelli, facilitates keynote “negotiation”
The three company finalists then pitched their ventures to a new panel of accredited investors and the audience. After short critiques from the investors, the audience members “funded” the companies, crowdfunding style. With $100 of “Ben Bucks,” each guest distributed his or her “investment dollars” in whole or part among the three finalists. Ben Franklin will award $15,000, prorated in real dollars to the companies based on the audience vote.
The evenings investor panelists were:
Dr. Clark DeHaven, SoundBoard Angel Fund
Mark Kramer, Private Investors Forum
Liz Sigety, Delaware Crossing Investor Group
Brett Topche, Red and Blue Ventures
Chad Paul, Ben Franklin Technology Partners President and CEO, hosted Ben Franklin Venture Idol. Fred Beste, CEO of the General Partners, Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds and Ben Franklin Technology Partners Board Chairman, was the emcee.
Via Lehigh Valley Business; Morning Call; Lehigh Valley Live/Express-Times
