25 companies to pitch at premiere entrepreneur event on June 28

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Twenty-five of the best and brightest regional companies have been selected to participate in the University at Buffalo’s Bright Buffalo Niagara Entrepreneur Expo on Wednesday, June 28, at the Hotel Henry.

In its ninth year, the Bright Buffalo Niagara Entrepreneur Expo is the region’s longest standing forum that creates vital connections and opportunities to nurture economic growth for entrepreneurs.

The top five companies will make five-minute pitches to a panel of judges, followed by a five-minute Q&A round. They will compete for a $20,000 grand prize, in addition to an automatic pass into the 43North semifinal round, complementary acceptance into the Critical Path Life Sciences Accelerator Program (for life sciences companies only) and an opportunity to pitch at an upcoming Upstate Venture Association of New York (UVANY) event. The five companies are:

• GapGrid, Buffalo
• HigherMe, Buffalo
• NanoHydroChem, Amherst
• Rachel’s Remedies, Buffalo
• WeDidIt, Buffalo.

The remaining 20 companies will make 90-second pitched for the opportunity to win the $5,000 People’s Choice Award, voted on live by the audience:

• Bestest, Amherst
• ClearView Social, Buffalo
• DashMetrics, Saratoga Springs
• EagleHawk One LLC, Buffalo
• Energy Harvesters, Rochester
  
• FHMatch, Toronto, Ontario
• Hipshark LLC (DBA Simple Fund), Williamsville
• House At Work, Rochester
• Midgard Medical, Buffalo
• Neurovascular Diagnostics, Buffalo
  
• Nidus Biosciences, Rochester
• Omantec, New York City
• OpenBottle, Buffalo
• Reactive Dynamics, Buffalo
• RepHike, Buffalo
• SkyTubeLive, Utica
• Smart Walls Construction, Amherst
• Sonioptix, Amherst
• Storillo, Buffalo
• TimberFish Technology, Westfield

Tickets are available now at brightbuffaloniagara.com.

Bright Buffalo Niagara 2017 is sponsored by Viaduct, Hotel Henry, Upstate Venture Connect, Western New York Incubator Network, Invest Buffalo Niagara, Colligan Law, Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman, Buffalo Business First, 43North, Western New York Venture Association, NYSTAR, National Grid, Visit Buffalo Niagara, Crowley Webb, Leadership Buffalo, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, UVANY, Z80 Labs, Print2Web, Harter Secrest & Emery, KATZ Americas, Empire Genomics, Insyte Consulting, MedTech, Launch NY, Athenex and Thermo Fisher.