Entrepreneurs take on The eFactory’s Demo Day

Two entrepreneurs stand before a full crowd to present their business.

Listening are businesspeople from all walks, potential financial investors and the mentors who guided them the last 12 weeks. Excitement is high, and nerves are higher.

This is Demo Day. It’s the capstone of The eFactory’s business accelerator program to build and refine select companies and their minimally viable products.

For this moment, Stuart Emerson and Brent Borelli in January traveled over 500 miles from Birmingham, Alabama, and committed to Springfield for their shot at building their business dream – a mobile survey app targeting restaurants and retailers. It’s called Reaction, and it offers participating customers discounts for completing quick, in-store surveys.

“We’re really wanting to take on 10 cities, and we’re planning on doing that within the next 12 months,” Borelli said.

But they’re starting in Springfield. During the Demo Day presentation in The Gallery on the second floor of Gillioz Theatre, the business partners said the Reaction app has roughly 300 users. And it’s running deals with 20 local businesses, including Druff’s, 417 Taphouse, BYOPizza, Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe and The Coffee Ethic.

That’s quick work in 12 weeks.

Cohort No. 2
Three other startup founders also had 10 minutes apiece to pitch their startups and unveil product developments at Demo Day. But one venture in the second cohort of the accelerator didn’t make the cut.

Brian Kincaid, director of The eFactory business incubator, said Pull Up a Seat, another out-of-state participant organized by Camille Baker of Orlando, Florida, was not yet in a position to present.

“Going through an accelerator is a rigorous process,” Kincaid said via email, noting timing is critical to presenting. “All of the companies in cohort two have made great strides. We continue to work with and support all of our accelerator companies.”

Participants in the business accelerator program also challenged online forums, bacteria-ridden beauty products and ways of keeping up with important relationships, in addition to outdated customer surveys.

Apt Crowd, a tech company presented by Chad Boschert, encourages internet users to find better answers inside online forums via faster search tools. He specifically targets engineering technical communities. Boschert said Apt Crowd could eventually reach up to 260,000 online forums.

During the accelerator program, Apt Crowd launched a private data program that collected information from forum leaders and online advertisers.

“On June 1, our first paying customer will go live with a 500-user forum,” Boschert said.

Amy Blansit next presented Solely Jolie, a beauty tool that works to keep makeup brushes clean and now is available for purchase on Amazon.

Brushes can be wiped on Solely Jolie’s water-free pads to keep them from accumulating dirt and blemish-causing bacteria, Blansit said, noting her business has a large market. Its demographic comprises females 15 years of age and older.

Blansit said her company currently is working with international distributors for expansion. Even when creating the name of the makeup tool, she had international affairs in mind.

“Jolie is actually French and it means pretty or beautiful,” Blansit said. “You’ll notice Lancome, Chanel – those are names that are common in the cosmetic industry and they’re all engrained in that French language. Even the word ‘mascara’ comes from French.”

Hector Cruz announced his Let’s Do Lunch app officially launched on Google Play and the iTunes App Store. The app is designed as a personal assistant to help users keep up to date with lunch engagements.

“Based on our survey, people want to invest in relationships, people are spending money to eat out and people are spending money on customer relationship management tools,” said Cruz, estimating Springfield residents last year spent $147 million on restaurant food. “Let’s Do Lunch combines all three into one effective tool.”

Jim Ashley, a director of accounting outsourcing at BKD, provided tax and accounting mentoring to the startups.

“During this process, all you get is constant feedback, and sometimes that just becomes white noise. The real skill for them is to distinguish wisdom from the noise,” he said.

Next step
A year ago, Emerson and Borelli were trying to launch a drink special app on their own college campus.

“That didn’t really work out too well,” Emerson said. “But through that process of talking to the restaurants and trying to get downloads, we came across the idea for Reaction, which we knew could be much better.”

Emerson and Borelli plan to keep Reaction’s physical location in Springfield.

“I like the fact that Springfield is a college town,” Emerson said. “I just graduated from [University of] Alabama a year ago, so I like the downtown area. There’s lots of stuff to do during the weekends.”

But they soon will set their business sights on the student populations in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

“We want that to sort of be our branching out point,” Borelli said, noting a potential for viral traction among that demographic.

Even though the accelerator program gives a $30,000 investment in exchange for 8 percent equity, the entrepreneurs know they’re going to need financial help.

“They give you free access to things like lawyers, accountants and office space,” Emerson said. “We got all the things that we otherwise would have had to spend thousands of dollars on in addition to development.”

Potential investors know what they’re looking for.

“As an investor, one of the things you’re looking for is traction in the market and then the ability to accelerate that traction,” said Zach Swartz, a senior managing adviser for BKD LLP and a mentor to the accelerator startups on investor relations. “We’re talking user growth. They have to think of ways to get new users and they have to ensure that users will understand how to use it.”

The Reaction app has not yet heard from interested investors, but Emerson and Borelli aren’t discouraged.

“We’d like to gain more traction, so we have better numbers to show,” Emerson said.


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