Eunice Png and Julie Sygiel, two Brown University seniors, did not snag the top prize when they presented their idea for a new product – a lingerie line for menstruating women called sexy.period – at their school’s elevator-pitch competition last month. In fact, they didn’t even place.
But like all good businesspeople, the two young women figured out how to turn a short-term setback into an advantage. After retooling their pitch to reflect the feedback they got at Brown, the pair beat out 32 other entrepreneurs to win the $300 first prize at the Rhode Island Elevator Pitch Competition on Dec. 4.
Png, an economics student, and Sygiel, a chemical engineering major, said their surveys have found a clear demand for stain-resistant and leak-proof intimate apparel that women could wear when they have their period. But the men who judged the contest at Brown failed to see the product’s potential.
“We realized that men didn’t know,” Png said in an interview after their successful second pitch. “They don’t see the product as needed. So we really pushed that in [the second] pitch.”
The new presentation clicked, with the panel of four judges saying sexy.period sounded like an innovative solution to an age-old problem. Png and Sygiel say they plan to develop the venture full time after they graduate next May.
Each presenter at the Elevator Pitch Contest, which was sponsored by the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, made a 90-second presentation to the judges.
Second-place honors, and $200 apiece, went to University of Rhode Island student Elizabeth Downing, who pitched her idea for the Poksak, a pocket-sized, reusable bag for consumers; and Brown University student Max Winograd, for a liner-less label printer called NuLabel Printing Solutions. Another six runners-up took home prizes of $50 apiece.
The competition offered clear evidence that the green trend has reached a fever pitch, with nearly half the presentations stressing an eco-friendly angle. Smithfield resident Kate Leach, for example, pitched a plan to recycle pocket lint, while Michael Greenwald, a Roger Williams University student, talked up the potential of non-wood paper made of hemp and exported from Argentina.
Not all the contestants were newcomers. Matt Grisby of Providence pitched Ecolect, a startup he co-founded two years ago that helps companies find sustainable materials, for the second year in a row.
Grisby said the feedback he received last year proved valuable – he has since landed a number of clients, including a Fortune 500 company – and hoped to benefit against this time around. “There’s always more to learn,” he said. •
