“The Investment” judges also awarded $10,000 to Vitable Health and $5,000 to CastPak. Vitable Health is a health care app and service that provides certified nurse practitioners for house calls to reduce the high cost of emergency room visits for nonemergency ailments. CastPak is a technology company that uses proprietary encoder technology to compress files and allow for high-definition streaming of events via a portable and easy-to-use camera.
Both Vitable Health and CastPak were already familiar with the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Penn State as participants in Happy Valley LaunchBox’s FastTrack Accelerator Program. Going through the accelerator and being exposed to the entrepreneurial community in State College prepared the teams for their final pitches on “The Investment.”
“We had the opportunity to have three pitch practice sessions with some local entrepreneurial leaders,” said CastPak co-founder Ben Cutler. “Lee Erickson, Liz Kisenwether, and Tim Kerchinski gave us lots of tips on how we should effectively be pitching our business.”
The other three student startups that competed in the 2019 Inc.U Competition were:
- Clot Not, a patent-pending device designed to provide home-recovery patients who are prone to blood clotting an option to continue mechanical therapy for stimulating blood flow, thus reducing the need for blood thinner medications.
- DermatoloMe, an innovative testing company that aims to identify the optimal antibiotic treatment for patients who suffer from severe chronic acne.
- Vytah-Fit, from Penn State Berks, a weight-lifting fitness company that uses Internet of Things sensors and data analysis to improve a user’s technique to increase workout efficiency while avoiding injury.
“The Investment” television show is the culmination of the Inc.U Competition managed by PennTAP in partnership with Invent Penn State, Penn State Outreach, and the Penn State Commonwealth Campuses. The initiative is funded by a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Prizes were made possible from the support of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA, Invent Penn State, and the College of Engineering.
Visit the WPSU Penn State website to watch the show online.