And the Winner March's Big Gig....

Last Tuesday we hosted our last regular season virtual Big Gig Pitch-Off, and it sure was a good one to watch!

The first entrepreneur of the night was Kymberly Dakin, pictured to the right, of Nugget. Nugget is a simple bookmarking tool that increases engagement & focus in online meetings by saving juicy "nuggets" of the meeting with the push of a button. Our second entrepreneur was Josh Kim of The Cubby, which is an online community art marketplace where college student creators can exclusively showcase and sell their work to the public. Our third and final entrepreneur of the night was Hannah Marr, pictured below, of Clique in Style. This is an online application that assists brides in the arrangement & visualization of their complete bridal party design so that they can have full confidence in how the different details will interact on the big day.

In addition to our pitchers, we had three amazing business professionals judging the event and giving constructive feedback to the entrepreneurs. Our panel of judges included Mark Horton, Co-Owner of Orono Brewing Company and Woodman's Brew Pub; Devin McNeill, CEO & Co-Founder of Flowfold; and Shannon Byers, Center Director & Certified Business Advisor for Maine SBDC at Coastal Enterprises Inc. While the judges deliberated, our "Big Rig" guest speaker, Erin Flett of Erin Flett Textiles and Home, had a Q&A session with our host, Renee Kelly, where she talked about her entrepreneurial journey in which she has won Greenlight Maine's $100,000 top prize, been named Mainebiz's "2020 Women to Watch" list, and landed partnerships with L.L.Bean and Anthropologie.

After the virtual audience and judges voted for their favorite entrepreneurs, Josh Kim of The Cubby was named the winner and received the $500 sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank! He will move on to pitch in the Finale for $5,000 on April 13th! Thank you to our Bootstrapping Sponsors, Maine Technology Institute and Eaton Peabody, and other awesome sponsors, to our fantastic judges, and everyone that tuned in to watch!