2021 VENTURES 10K IDEA PITCH COMPETITION
BOSTON – Former Ram Steven Lopez Toro along with Suffolk men's soccer's current sophomore Kyle Rosa and his Class of 2023 classmate Anusha Wasim Khan Kha are top-10 finalist in the 2021 Suffolk Ventures 10K Idea Pitch Competition for their concept, RG1 Goalkeeping Gloves.
The competition was open to all current graduate and undergraduate students from across the College of Arts & Sciences, the Sawyer Business School and Suffolk Law School to submit their ideas for new ventures to the competition.
Following the application process, the top 10 student teams will receive $250 in seed money, and will be paired with an alumni or faculty coach to prepare for the live competition on Friday, April 23. Finalist will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, and the winner will receive up to $10,000, courtesy of Green Rabbit, a company founded by Suffolk alumni Greg Balestrieri, BSBA '09, and Joe Melville, BSBA '08.
RG1 Goalkeeping Gloves was founded in Boston by Lopez Toro, Rosa and Wasim Khan. The trio's sustainable, affordable, one-pair per season gloves were chosen one of the top 10 finalist earlier this week. As a finalist, the threesome was paired up with the Coach Kenneth J. Mooney, BS '77, MBA '80, who has over 30 years of lending and credit experience to prep for this Friday's live competition, which can be viewed live at 6:00 p.m. here.
Audience members can watch Lopez Toro, Rosa and Wasim Khan, along with the other nine finalists, give their pitches to the panel of judges, which include the pitch competition two sponsors Balestrieri and Melville, as well as founder and Chief Executive Officer of Exemplar Companies Christopher Marston and President and Chief Executive Office of sticky.io Brian Bogosian. For more information on the judges click here.
Each team will be graded on six different categories with the overall winner taking home $10,000 in funding.
- Pain and the idea as a solution.
Is the identified pain in the marketplace credible and does the idea presented as a realistic solution? - Opportunity has a realistic market with profit potential.
Does the idea have a credible market, where there is value, space within the industry's competition, and connected with the presenter(s)? - How well the execution is considered.
Does the presenter (and/or team) possess the knowledge, skills and abilities or have a network that fills any gaps, in bringing the idea to the marketplace as a viable business? - Flow and format of pitch.
Does the presentation have a logical and cohesive flow that is clearly understood by the audience (judge)? - Pitch delivery
IS the presenter (and/or team) passionate, credible, and persuasive when delivering the pitch? - Economic value to Suffolk GDP
As presented, does the idea, feasibility and execution support the idea as becoming a viable business organization, adding economic value to Suffolk GDP?
The competition is put on by The Center for Entrepreneurship, a resource for students, alumni and the community – offering training workshops, mentor sessions, guest lectures, competitions, support for new ventures, and more.
Lopez Toro, who defended the Rams' goal for two years in 2016 and again in 2019, and Rosa, who is currently in his sophomore season with Suffolk, are not the first student-athletes to excel in the University's entrepreneurship program. Baseball's Chuck Gibson exceled in the crowd funding class for The Wicked Fisha project, a tackle box 2.0.