TRAVERSE CITY — TCNewTech raised a glass to its Pitch Night presentations for 2021, which were virtual for the first half of the year before returning to the City Opera House for the second half.

The final monthly Pitch Night of the year featured seven Bar Napkin pitches. Presenters were limited to a one-minute presentation with one on-screen slide for these early iterations, which may simply be an idea sketched out on a napkin commonly found underneath a glass or a bottle at a bar.

Fittingly but with a twist, Audacia Elixirs, won the $500 cash prize at the Dec. 7 event. 4Front Credit Union was the Pitch Night prize sponsor.

Service industry veterans Loghan Call and Roman Albaugh delivered the winning pitch for Audacia Elixirs, a line of zero-proof spirits.

“Our business model can provide every bar and restaurant in our community and beyond with the tools and products needed to create a healthier drinking culture, all without hurting the bottom line,” Call said during the presentation.

“Our line of zero-proof spirits was created to rival the complexities, sophistication, creativity and flavor profile of our boozy counterparts, all while taking a destructive activity and making it a creative one,” Albaugh said.

TCNewTech Executive Director Jennifer Szunko said Audacia Elixirs were popular with the audience vote as well as after the event.

“They gave out samples,” Szunko said. “They are very fancy. It was fun; they had a line of people waiting to try their cocktails.” (After the presentations.)

Szunko said the final Pitch Night, usually held the first Tuesday of the month, attracted a wide audience.

Szunko said there were 115 people in-person at the City Opera House, 163 on the TCNewTech Facebook page, 29 on its YouTube channel and another 20 on LinkedIn.

“We had a great turnout and great energy,” Szunko said. “People were making connections and meeting with people. We had a lot of newcomers to the area and people that have been long-time participants. We had people who haven’t been in a long time returning to TCNewTech.

“We definitely ended on a great note. People had a hard time leaving. I saw a lot of business cards being exchanged and some great start-ups for future pitch events.”

Szunko said the Bar Napkin pitches featured a lot of new products, some of which seemed less technical at first glance.

“The technology isn’t always obvious, but every business today has technology implications somewhere,” she said.

The other Bar Napkin pitches included:

  • Ryan Presern for Hush, which uses geofencing to turn off a cellphone ring and automatically turn it to vibrate.
  • John Pennypacker Young of Vidse, which transcribes video and makes the transcript searchable.
  • Jamie Leigh Kramer of Beyond Forests, which creates a sustainable alternative to cemeteries with trees and designated memorial spaces.
  • Bruce Thompson of Urbaneer, which builds compact, modular homes using space optimization components.
  • Ty Schmidt of Good Works Labs, which aims to reimagine “how organizations drive impact through social issues like climate, health, and mobility.”
  • Kathy Grinsteiner of EverGROWTH Consulting, which looks to launch a 4-month program to facilitate meaningful discussions about racial equity.

The Dec. 7 Pitch Night also featured an update from Interactive Aerial, which made a presentation at the City Opera House on July 5, 2016.

Software engineer Chris Schmidt said Interactive Aerial five years ago had no customers and no revenue when he appeared before TCNewTech.

“We had big dreams and a nice methodology to work hard,” Schmidt said.

CEO Mark Stephens said Interactive Aerial is more than a drone company, has grown to 10 employees and has been profitable three of the last four years.

Stephens said the company hit $850,000 in 2021 sales. “We beat our plan for the year,” he said.

Ben Marshall, the Global Product Manager for Microsoft Licensing and Cloud Solutions for HP, also unveiled the company’s Subscription Management program.

“We’re launching this globally in the UK (United Kingdom), Germany, France, Chile and Traverse City, Michigan,” said Marshall, who is on the TCNewTech Board of Directors.

The first TCNewTech Pitch Night of 2022 is scheduled for Jan. 4 and will focus on health technology, Szunko said.

For more information on the next event or to apply for future Pitch Nights, visit https://tcnewtech.org/pitch/ or email Szunko at executivedirector@tcnewtech.org.