Aggie PITCH Awards McFerrin Cup, More Than $35,000 In Prizes

The McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship hosted its fifth annual Aggie PITCH on March 7.

Now open to both current and former students, Aggie PITCH seeks the best Aggie business pitches from across a variety of industries and sectors.

“In only our fifth year of Aggie PITCH, we’ve continued to see growth in both the quantity and quality of pitch competitors,” said Blake Petty ’98, executive director of the McFerrin Center.

FluxWorks, LLC took home the first-place prize of $7,500 and the McFerrin Cup in the Full Pitch division for current students. The company, represented by Bryton Praslicka ’24 and Daniel Zamarron ’22, develops and manufactures magnetic gears. Praslicka and Zamarron plan to use the prize money to buy back their intellectual property from Texas A&M and move into product development.

Taking home top honors, $7,500 and the McFerrin Cup in the Full Pitch division for former students was Wide Afternoon, LLC (Ovie). Represented by Stacie Thompson ’02, Ovie aims to solve the problem of food waste in homes with a digital smart tracking system. Thompson plans to use the winnings to purchase prototype samples to get the product into user homes for testing.

For the 2022 event, 20 startups were selected as finalists to compete for the McFerrin Cup and a share of more than $35,000 in prize money. The competition has three divisions — Full Pitch for current and former students, and Elevator Pitch, which is open to both. The event gives startup founders the opportunity to pitch their business in a fast-paced, high-energy format to a panel of anonymous judges and an audience of students, professionals, mentors, possible investors and fellow Aggie entrepreneurs.

In the Full Pitch divisions, 10 teams were each given 10 minutes for their pitch, and in the Elevator Pitch division, competitors were given one minute.

Finalists represented industries including agriculture, information technology, consumer products and energy technology. They are now automatically admitted into an exclusive group of startup founders eligible to represent Texas A&M at national and global entrepreneurial competitions.

A list of all Aggie PITCH winners can be found at aggiepitch.com and the full story is at Mays Impacts.