The Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College has announced Statusphere, a brand management and influencer network solution firm, as the 2018 winner of its annual Venture Plan Competition, the Orlando region’s largest and most comprehensive business plan and pitch competition for start-ups. Statusphere will receive $25,000 in prize money and has the option of receiving an additional $25,000 minimum equity investment from venVelo, a Winter Park-based, early-stage venture capital firm.
Open to all regionally headquartered start-ups, the annual competition is Central Florida’s very own “Shark Tank” where teams battle for funding and mentorship in front of the region’s top entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Selected from more than 50 submitted proposals, finalists included Statusphere, along with Pangian, a remote-work job site catering to the millennial workforce; Lucerna, an education gaming and analytics technology firm; Frida.ai, an artificial intelligence company that helps companies improve browser conversion rates; and HENO, a software solution that aims to streamline management tasks for physical therapy practices.
