1492 Demo Day Celebrates Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of the Columbus Region

The graduates of the second voyage of the 1492 business accelerator program were presented on stage at the Canzani Center Wednesday evening.  More than 140 attendees were on hand to learn of the progress these five companies have made over the last 11 weeks of their business acceleration journeys and to celebrate the Central Ohio entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“When we first started this program I was excited to see how fast we could spin up a number of viable, investable companies,” said Greg Pugh, senior director of venture acceleration for TechColumbus and 1492 program manager. “What I learned is just how strong our ecosystem is.   This program demonstrated that right here in the region we have the partners, the sponsors, the mentors, the investors and the real belief that Columbus is the place to start a company.”

“This accelerator represents the next phase of TechStart programming,” said Tim Haynes, interim president and CEO of TechColumbus.  “We believe finding, backing and supporting growth of these potentially high performance creative companies is a key element of the region’s future.”

And the region certainly seems to have no shortage of entrepreneurs with creative ideas for companies.  Business accelerators such as 1492 and 10X are having no problems filling their available openings for such programs.  In fact, more than 160 companies applied for the second voyage of 1492.  From this slate of applicants, five companies were selected to participate in the 11-week business boot camp.

1492, the second voyage, was a collaboration among TechColumbus, Columbus State Community College and the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD).  This was the first time either of these schools were formally engaged as partners in the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the results of their participation helped take the program to new levels.

According to Pugh, when approached with the idea of participating in 1492, the leadership of both schools didn’t hesitate.

“By the third bullet point of my presentation, Dr. Harrison [president of Columbus State] said ‘yes’.” 

“We see this as part of our role in regional workforce and economic development,” said Harrison during his remarks at Demo Day.

CCAD provided all the meeting spaces and facilities for 1492 and each participating team engaged the services of a CCAD intern over the course of the program.

The five graduating companies included: 
• Azoti, which is developing a software solution to help local food producers run their businesses more effectively and profitably.
• Capstone Innovations, a product development firm dedicated to developing complete warehouse systems. 
• Chruchsys, a technology solutions company that has developed a complete congregational management system for churches of all sizes to engage members, increase donations and provide management efficiencies for church leaders.
• Hungerly, a mobile application for connecting mobile food vendors with consumers.
• Infinum Education, developers of the Aviso application, a sophisticated relationship management system to enhance student-advisor interactions at the college level.

Each of these companies received business development coaching from any number of mentors and advisors from the Central Ohio community.  “Without the help of our mentors and advisors, this program wouldn’t have been possible,” said Pugh.  (A full list of these advisors can be found on the 1492 Web site.)

In addition, each team received $20,000 in funding made possible through TechColumbus, Columbus State and Heartland Bank.

Participants achieved a number of milestones over the course of the 11-week program including submission of patent applications, raising of private equity funding, presenting before the region’s Deal Flow Assessment Committee (DFAC) and entering into due diligence for funding from the TechColumbus Pre-Seed fund.

“It is the speed at which we can help these companies achieve their milestones and come to market that really makes accelerator programs like 1492 so impactful,” said Haynes.

Plans are currently underway for the third voyage of 1492 for the spring of 2012.  Watch for future announcements and for developing news on the 1492 graduates.

For more information, visit www.onefourninetwo.com