February 16, 2021

Six finalists move on to the PEC final round

The second round of this year’s Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge is complete, and six teams will move on to the final round, scheduled for April 8, 2021. 

Held virtually Jan. 27, 20 teams vied for six spots and a shot at winning almost $150,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. Each team submitted a 3-5-minute video, which was reviewed by a panel of five judges before the second-round virtual event.

 During that event, all teams answered a series of questions. Based on the video submissions and the Q&A responses, each judge picked a team to mentor for the final round. Videos from the remaining 15 teams were then posted online for voting, and popular votes, i.e., likes, were accumulated for one week after the second round. The team with the most votes/likes took the sixth spot to move onto the final round. In total, the posted videos had more than 10,000 views.

 PEC finalists moving on to the third round can be found below, along with their mentors/judges.

  • Campus Hub (higher ed smartphone app) – Dr. Jay Golden, ECU Entrepreneur in Residence
  • Tracks Golf (trackable golf balls) – Dennis Tracz, director, Accelerate Rural NC
  • InHouse Call (communications tool) – Ryan Butcher, serial entrepreneur
  • Colorful Desires (minority business platform) – Dana Newell, founder, Benton Newell Communications
  • Alinement Dancewear (dance clothing) – Hallie Hawkins, business counselor, SBTDC
  • Booze Juice (alcoholic juice box) – Miller School of Entrepreneurship

 “We’re very pleased with the field of six finalists for this year’s Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge,” said David Mayo, challenge coordinator.

 Entrepreneur Brian Hamilton, the founder of both Sageworks and the Brian Hamilton Foundation, welcomed everyone to the second round and gave brief remarks about the importance of entrepreneurship.

 This year marks the fourth Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge, an annual event sponsored by the College of Business’ Miller School of Entrepreneurship. The Challenge is largest of its kind in the North Carolina. 

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