Start-ups pitch businesses at Paramount event

Wes Merrill and Keevin O'Rourke admitted they had failed.

The co-founders of Steamweaver told about 700 people from across the state gathered Thursday in the Paramount Theatre that after months of work, their talent agency for online gamers was a nonstarter.

O'Rourke and Merril were among six teams who made their business pitch on Launch Day 2016, which marked the final day of the intensive three-month Iowa Startup Accelerator program.

The 95-day program matches start-ups with mentors to develop a business concept for a successful launch - including $20,000 in seed funding, advice for creating a financial model and establishing a product, as well as the chance to meet with industry experts.

Merrill's and O'Rourke's pitch was unusual in that they weren't selling their business or their product, but rather, themselves as entrepreneurs, Merrill said.

'We decided, let's take this opportunity and make it our own and let's give an unorthodox pitch and see if it lands right,” O'Rourke said.

Two months into the program, the pair learned a streaming video platform, Twitch, was launching a similar program, effectively cutting Steamweaver out of the market.

'It was really hard to bounce back,” O'Rourke said. 'It was tough, but at the same time, we understood we needed to keep moving forward and this is a bump in the road.”

For some companies, Launch Day was an opportunity for team members to announce their success. AssetRover created an online software system for commercial real estate investors to manage their company - a program that two Eastern Iowa companies, Compass Commercial Services and River Place, have agreed to pilot starting early 2017.

Merrill and O'Rourke hope to take their company in a new direction. They've created a model to help users on social media - particularly those who have acquired millions of followers - to grow and retain their audience.

Merrill said they hope to launch a product in three to six months.

Other teams pitching included: Girls With Ideas, a leadership curriculum for girls aged 9-13; Soteria, a company creating bicycle safety technology; the mobile app Hang and Written, a Cedar Rapids-based women's fashion line.

'80 percent of our economic growth (in Iowa) comes from small- to medium-sized businesses,” said Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, who attended the event with Gov. Terry Branstad. 'This is how we remain innovative and competitive as a state. This startup community is solving a need, they're creating jobs and they're growing the economy.”

David Tominsky, ISA managing director, said 200 companies and entrepreneurs applied for the 2016 cohort, 50 of which were selected the three-week pre-accelerator program that began in May of this year.

From there, the teams were narrowed down to six.

Tominsky said the intensity of a time-boxed accelerator really works for some owners.

LendEDU, an online marketplace for student loan refinancing and a company that participated in the first cohort in 2014, is projected to become a $4 million company by 2017.

Tominsky said Iowa Startup Accelerator's services are available to those in the program following the cohort.

'The truth is, the end of Launch Day is not a finish line,” Tominsky said. 'We'll continue to support entrepreneurs and early stage companies as long as they'll have us. There's a lot of work that continues to need to be done and we'll continue to help do work.”