In the house: Startup Grind Wichita Pitch Battle
The first-ever Startup Grind Wichita Pitch Battle packed Groover Labs' event center with high energy this past Thursday evening as five teams pitched their businesses to a team of judges.
The evening was a perfect illustration of the collaborative community we are building at Groover Labs.
The startups — Filimin, KingFit, OwnIT, Konexial and Midwest eSports — each had five minutes to present from our stage.
Judges then peppered each team with follow-up questions about business plans, growth opportunities and financials. The judges were:
Jason Toevs | Co-Founder/CTO | QuiCC
Maggie Koops | Operations Manager | Groover Labs
Gary Oborny | Chairman/CEO | Occidental Management, Inc
Josh Oeding | President/CEO | e2e Accelerator
Becky Tuttle | Council Member | City of Wichita
Midwest eSports, which puts on semi-professional video game tournaments across the country, won the battle, claiming a $500 prize that Oborny doubled. Midwest eSports also will receive a 50 percent subsidy toward their exhibition space at the Startup Grind Global 2020 in San Francisco.
We appreciate Startup Grind Wichita letting us play host for the event.
Ready for a tour?
Our next hotseat open house will be noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18. Come enjoy coffee from Local Roasters and Christmas cookies.
Meet Paul Maseberg
What does Paul do at Groover Labs? Paul is our volunteer IT manager. His main focus has been getting our network up and running. He also is developing the member portal software for our website and has helped install several security features.
What's his background? Paul went to Fort Hays State University and earned bachelor's degrees in physics and computer science. After graduation, he began working at AccuWeather, where he's been a software engineer for more than 11 years. The team he works with provides customer weather warnings for enterprise clients. "For example, we stop trains if the wind is blowing hard," he said.
But who is he, really? Paul is a big believer in the African Ubuntu philosophy of life, often translated as "I am because we are." He said his time volunteering at Groover Labs, a nonprofit, "is focused on doing what I can to be part of the 'we'."
What else should you know about Paul? Paul is open about his dyslexia. The struggle to read and write has helped him overcome obstacles, he said. "It also has confused a lot of people who try to read my emails."