2017 'Stand Up for Your Startup' is a Success

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 7, 2017) — The Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship and the Lexington Office of the Kentucky Innovation Network, both part of University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics, hosted “StandUp for Your StartUp” during the recent Lexington Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) at Creative Lodging Solutions.

This competitive pitch event marks Lexington’s seventh annual GEW pitch competition for early stage entrepreneurs and startups. Various teams presented for a chance to win prize money totaling $1,500, including the $1,000 Furst Award. Judges for the event included successful entrepreneurs, that scored the teams and selected the top prize winners: Tony Aguilar, entrepreneur; Mark DeSalvo, certified public accountant with DeSalvo & Company; and Mike Tetterton, CEO of Creative Lodging Solutions.

FluXomics placed first and won $1,000 toward its startup. Team members Ramon Sun and Jacob Roney are both doctoral candidates from the UK College of Medicine. FluXomics is a health technology company advancing dynamic metabolomics for precision medicine and every area of life sciences research. Its Dynamic Metabolomics™ is a powerful technology for assessing health, biomarker discoveries, innovative diagnostic tests and generation of hypothesis-driven research ideas.

OptiMol Enzymes placed second and won $500. Team leader Corey Brizzee is also a doctoral candidate in the College of Medicine. OptiMol Enzymes has discovered an innovative process that harnesses the natural capabilities of plant enzymes involved in starch degradation. They aim to enhance the utilization of starch as an industrial feedstock by accelerating the processing of starch while reducing costs of energy and waste-reduction strategies as well as making the process more environmentally friendly.

Teams that competed in the competition included projects from the VACE Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp program, as well as other entrepreneurs in the community: Auto Score Technologies; OptiMol Enzymes LLC; BlueView; Adder Mobile Technologies Inc.; Smart Notes; FluXomics; HandPrint; Connect LLC; Map and Compass; SafeTrac Technologies LLC; Smart Student Storage; and The Sustainable Products Company.