Uphill, downhill sales pitch

KENT BLECHYNDEN/Dominion Post

MAGNETIC ATTRACTION: Eyemagnet's team for the Cable Car Challenge, Paul Treacy, Steve Castellotti, Nick Ratcliffe, Duncan Stokes and Kevin Li. The team took the top-prize in the Wellington Innovation Network-inspired challenge.

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From Wellington to Brazil and back again, technology innovator Eyemagnet's latest success is the top award in the entrepreneur-centric Cable Car Challenge.

Four months after the Wellington Innovation Network-inspired business planning competition was launched, 360 entries were whittled to nine finalists after rounds of judging.

The nine entrepreneurial start-up businesses were given a slot yesterday morning to pitch their business to a six-strong panel of judges on board Wellington's cable car.

Their pitch could last as long as the cable car took to run a one-way trip - about eight minutes.

Eyemagnet, which makes interactive screen technology using mobile text messaging and motion detect interactivity, took the top prize of $50,000 - $30,000 in cash and the remainder "in kind".

Eyemagnet sales and marketing manager Nick Ratcliffe said it was a speedy sales pitch. "It went very quickly, I looked up and the top station was right there."

The award comes after Eyemagnet won a a successful contract to supply Brazil's biggest bus company with its specialised software.

Wellington Innovation Network chairman Rob Acton said the judging panels, which included Aftermail inventor and serial entrepreneur Rod Drury and Trade Me founder Sam Morgan, was formed from the "cream of Wellington's investment community".

The judges were looking for a business that would generate the biggest impact for Wellington in terms of growth and revenue.

The nine finalists represented a breadth of product and enterprise, from design and product manufacturing to service based websites for medical recruitment and hiring tools.

The $2000 runner-up prize went to Kapai, a healthy food concept retailer specialising in salads, sandwiches and soups.

Commended finalists were Hire Things, Medrecruit, Eureka Clothing and Hushamok.

Most of the finalists were already operating successfully in a market.

Mr Acton said the prize money was minimal, secondary to the kudos of the award. The cash would be "only enough to allow you to fail", he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News