The Idea Pitch

Michaela Butler - Senior, Business Analytics and Economics Major
Kent Music & Community Venue

A community-focused music and entertainment venue in downtown Kent featuring live performances, a coffee shop, a bar, and a record store. The space will bring students, residents, and local artists together, foster meaningful connections, support local talent, and create a welcoming hub for creativity, culture, and community. 

Carson Fisher - Senior, Entrepreneurship Major
Flex Recovery

Flex Recovery is a versatile wellness wrap that allows the user to secure a cold or warm pack to the most commonly injured parts of the body. This allows them to efficiently recover from the countless minor injuries that would otherwise prevent the user from partaking in their activity of choice. 
 

Nick Hillenbrand 
TBD

Info coming soon!

Richard J. Hlavaty III - Senior, Entrepreneurship Major
Competitive Edge Paintball Products, LLC

Competitive Edge Paintball Products, LLC develops innovative paintball products that address unmet needs and gaps in the marketplace. Its first product is a patent-pending thermal protective paintball pod designed to help limit temperature and humidity exposure, preserve paintball consistency, and fit existing reload routines.
 

Morgan Hoover - Graduate Student, MBA Program
Salvage

Salvage is an innovative app that addresses one of the world’s most pressing challenges: food waste. The app connects businesses with consumers, offering surplus food inventory at discounted prices. By making excess food more accessible and affordable, Morgan aims to reduce waste, help businesses recover costs, and provide consumers with budget-friendly options. 
  

Will Maynard - Senior, Biology Major
ProductScout

ProductScout is an AI-powered platform that helps aspiring entrepreneurs discover and validate business opportunities aligned with their passions. By analyzing market demand, competition, customer pain points, and industry trends, ProductScout streamlines product research while helping users differentiate their products, connect with manufacturers, and launch successful e-commerce businesses. 

Connor Myers - Senior, Accounting Major
Redefined Shine

Redefined Shine is a mobile fleet washing business specializing in on-site washing and wastewater recovery systems. Our job is to reduce labor costs and vehicle downtime while providing environmentally responsible washing solutions that comply with applicable EPA regulations.

Faizan Farhat - Graduate Student, Emerging Media and Technology Master's Program
Swipz

Aymon Yusuf - Junior, Computer Science Major
Swipz

Where are we eating? Swipz is an AI Powered Consumer App that helps college students decide where to eat based on how they feel, their budget, and their time. Swipz simplifies the choice so students can spend less time deciding and more time enjoying moments together.

2026 JUDGES

Bill Baumel
Managing Director - Ohio Innovation Fund 

Faith Voinovich 
Principal - Ohio Innovation Fund 

Greg Basford
Former Owner, Heritage Packaging, LLC

Chuck Mozingo
Info Coming Soon 

ABOUT THE IDEA PITCH

Pitch Your Idea for Funding

The Kent State Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship’s John S. and Marlene J. Brinzo Center for Entrepreneurship is now offering a fall pitch competition for students who have an idea. The Idea Pitch Competition creates an opportunity for students to receive mentoring and feedback on their business idea, as well as win seed money. Student finalists pitch to a panel of judges. All finalists win a cash prize, and the first-place winner earns a guaranteed spot as Spring Pitch finalist.

Presenting Sponsor:
 

 

Ohio Innovation Fund (OIF) is a venture capital firm based in Columbus, Ohio whose member institutions include Kent State University, The Ohio State University and Ohio University. The OIF team has turned ideas into over $10 billion of market value, including several Initial Public Offerings and acquisitions by SAP, Medtronic, Dell, Intuit and Stryker. OIF's companies have been featured in prominent media outlets such as CNN, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. Many Fortune 500 companies and leading universities are customers of OIF’s portfolio, and their strategic partners include Microsoft, Facebook, Citi and SAP, among others. Combined revenue growth was approximately 100 percent between 2016 and 2017 for OIF’s portfolio.

Bill Baumel oversees all operations of The Ohio Innovation Fund (OIF), a venture capital firm based in Columbus, Ohio. OIF has the largest early-stage venture capital portfolio of Ohio-based companies. Member institutions include Kent State University, The Ohio State University and Ohio University. OIF’s companies have been featured in prominent media such as CNN, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. Many of the Fortune 500 and leading universities are customers of OIF’s portfolio companies, and their strategic partners include Microsoft, Facebook, Citi, and SAP, among others. Combined revenue growth was approximately 100% between 2016 and 2017 for OIF’s portfolio.

Turning "Bold Ideas" into thriving enterprises is what OIF partners with entrepreneurs to accomplish. One such bold idea was from a diabetic, who each night worried that they might not wake up in the morning because their glucose levels may go too low overnight, and the only diabetic testing was periodic finger pricks. Out of that bold idea came Dexcom and its continuous glucose monitor, which provides a glucose reading to diabetics' mobile devices every five minutes. A great step forward for diabetics, and a company now worth over $10 billion. This could be you! 

OIF fosters commercialization efforts at KSU, OSU, and OU through appointments to university's Accelerator Award Committees, sponsoring internship programs, career linkage among member schools’ students/alumni and OIF companies, speaking engagements, mentoring of faculty members, incubating faculty start-ups, and guest course, panel, and business plan competition participation. 

With more than twenty years of experience investing in Silicon Valley, and close ties with a significant network of key Silicon Valley leaders, Bill has spent his career investing in venture capital-backed emerging growth companies. Awarded Venture 100 status as one of the top 100 VC’s in the United States, with successful exits via multiple Initial Public Offerings and acquisitions by companies such as Medtronic, Dell, SAP, Intuit, and Stryker. Areas of focus include SaaS, Big Data, Cyber Security, Med Tech, and Advanced Manufacturing. Having served as a CEO, COO and CFO of successful public and private companies, he understands what it takes to build and scale a leading company in a high growth market. 

Learn More | Ohio Innovation Fund

Contact Us
 

Linda Hale - Marketing Manager of The Brinzo Center

Phone: 330-672-7890
Email: lhale9@kent.edu 
 

Shawn Rohlin Ph.D. - Director of The Brinzo Center, Professor of Economics

Phone: 330-672-1098
Email: srohlin@kent.edu
 

Nick Petrella - Entrepreneur in Residence

Phone: 330-672-5826
Email: npetrel3@kent.edu