Governor's Cup Winner Arleesa of JBU a Winner at G60 Siloam Springs
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The return of the G60 pitch contest to NWA this week included crowning a hometown winner, JBU startup and Governor's Cup winner Arleesa Custom Dolls.
Event organizer Brett Amerine of Startup Junkie called it a huge hit and said a standing-room-only crowd of roughly 150 filled up the "outstanding venue," 28 Springs, in historic downtown Siloam to hear 21 pitches.
The official winners were: Manhattan Gas = Cash Cow, pitched by Brock Hauser (People's Choice winner), and Arleesa Custom Dolls with Values, pitched by Chase Skelton of JBU (Judges' Choice winner).
Chase and his JBU teammates (Andrea Good, Jake Wilson, and Jeremy Enders) are coming off an undergrad first-place win at the 2014 DWR Governor's Cup.
Here's more on Arleesa from Chase:
Arleesa, LLC, is an ecommerce toy company promoting positive, creative play for the kids of today. Our first product, the Arleesa doll, is a custom doll girls and moms design together using our website to select from a variety of different hair styles, skin tones, facial features and body sizes.
Our company is built off a hole perceived in the Fashion Doll industry for a new doll promoting positive values, healthy body image, and accurate ethnic features instead of the negative, stereotyped, and impossible standards presented by other brands. Our company also provides an online, multiplayer game & reward system for real-life accomplishments to reinforce positive value messages in the lives of girls.
This business was born out of a senior business project at JBU where my teammates (Andrea Good, Jake Wilson, and Jeremy Enders) and I wrote a five-year business plan that won first place at this year's Donald W. Reynold's Governor's Cup.
Each winner took home $1,000 in cash prizes.
Judges were Kennon Largent of New Road Ventures; Ellen Brune of IA client firm Boston Mountain Biotech; James Eldridge, WearLit / Instapparel / Private Label; and Eva Fast of JBU.
The next G60 is scheduled for Aug. 12 at 12 noon in Rogers as part of the NWA Business Expo at the John Q. Hammons Center.