Six aspiring entrepreneurs, innovators and small business owners will compete for prizes during the 2025 Volusia Innovation Pitch Competition and Innovation Challenge.
The competition will be from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 27, at the Ocean Center, located at 101 N. Atlantic Ave. in Daytona Beach. Prizes include $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second place, and $2,000 for people’s choice, a Volusia County press release said.
Attendees will cast their vote for the people’s choice award.
The six finalists, who will pitch their business ideas before a panel of five judges, are:
- Collin Topolski and Andy Zamora of Acreage Farms, designers of profit maximizing solutions for vertical farming. Their multilevel, autonomous monitoring system provides 24/7 assessment capability and real time integration with water, light, and plant nutrition systems to optimize productivity and crop yield.
- Lucas Cohen and Paul Moody of Beyond Bounds Studios, developers of Tangohost, a custom server, game hosting, and management solution; and Titanborn, the first fully voice-activated and animated mass multiplayer online role-built game using the Vanilla Minecraft platform.
- Jack White of Mr. Market, developer and distributor of an engaging table-top family game that teaches financial principles to children as young as 7. Designed to simulate the stock market, Mr. Market uses realistic scenarios to make “buying and selling” exciting and fun.
- Andrew Bernett of Be Well Therapeutics, manufacturer and distributor of a beeswax-infused topical therapy system that enhances the effectiveness of over-the-counter and prescription creams, ointments, and lotions to provide faster relief and healing of dry and irritated skin.
- Jacob Fleming and Ryan Flournoy of JRK Supplements, developers and producers of an all-natural lineup of chewable energy products called Slap Strips. Unlike sugary and highly caffeinated products on the market today, Slap Strips are made from fruit and other natural ingredients using a nutrient preserving dehydration process.
- Jenny Porter of Porter Pelvic School, creator of a series of self-help, online courses to address pelvic area disorders such as urinary incontinence. Porter Pelvic offers proven instructional content with a course selection algorithm to deliver targeted and effective help.
