It’s down to a half dozen entrepreneurs in a competition where the best business ideas get money to start up or expand.
The Launch Pad competition started out with 19 business ideas, then narrowed the field down to 12 in Round 2.
Now six contestants have three weeks to fine tune presentations and business plans before facing a live audience and a panel of judges to make a case for why their business ideas should be a winner.
The first place winner receives $12,500. Second place earns $7,500. The third place winner receives $3,500.
Who is advancing?
- Chris and Jill Ashley, Founders: Appalachian Leather Works, a business that sells leather golf products
- Grant Gause, Created: a marine lighting product
- Ben Messer, Created: a reusable brace-like device to hold patients’ arms steady during a certain type of heart surgery
- Alan Nash, Created: SkinLink, a wound-care device that aims to keep people with severe injuries alive longer
- Tom Parnelle, Founded: Bee Sweet Honey, a business that sells honey, pollinates fields and removes honeybee hives
- Emory Vandiver and CJ Austin, Founded: Catawba River Antique Mall, which will be the largest antique mall in Gaston County and the second largest in the Charlotte area
Choosing the finalists
The Launch Pad committee chose finalists based on how well the contestants described their products or ideas, identified their market, created a marketing plan, showed how they would make money and how the project would add jobs to the local economy.
Narrowing down the field was tough, said Merryman Cassels of the Gaston Regional Chamber.
“They put so much work into their presentations,” Cassels said. “Each of these applicants carries a passion, and that passion came through.”
Both the Gaston Regional Chamber and the Montcross Area Chamber will continue to work with those who didn’t make the cut to help them move forward in creating their businesses, Cassels said.
What happens during Round 3?
Finalists get five minutes to present theirbusiness plans or prototype demonstrations.
Entrepreneurs are judged on a point system.
Half of the total points come from the entrepreneurs' business plans. Forty percent of the points come from their presentations. The opinion of the audience makes up the final 10 percent of the points.
Judges have 10 minutes for a Q&A based on those business plans.
You can reach Amanda Memrick at 704-869-1839 or twitter.com/AmandaMemrick.
What: Launch Pad live competition
Where: Gaston College Kimbrell Campus, 7220 Wilkinson Blvd., Belmont
When: 5:30 p.m. Oct. 8
Cost: Free
Editors's note: This version corrects an earlier story that incorrectly listed details of the live presentation.