A New Jersey-based startup that has developed a mobile app as a customer feedback tool for businesses won a $10,000 cash prize and a year of rent-free office space in Westchester County in the recent Pitch Night contest sponsored by the Westchester County Association.
The Nov. 18 contest, which featured presentations from eight startup entrepreneurs, was part of the WCA”™s observance of Global Entrepreneurship Week in the county. Events also included the WCA”™s inaugural Women In Tech awards luncheon and the annual WCA Fall Leadership Dinner at which four leaders in health care and real estate in Westchester were honored.
David Montoya and Neil Magnus, founders of Satisfi Inc., won the contest grand prize for their mobile app that provides real-time, two-directional customer feedback and problem resolution between consumers and businesses. The company is based in Montvale, N.J., and seeking a home in Westchester, according to WCA officials.
John Ritacco, a contest judge and president and CEO of CMS Bank, in a press release said Satisfi”™s founder presented “a unique concept, with a platform that has the ability to give customer feedback to companies of all types. This is how millennials do business, and how they communicate today. It”™s an awesome concept, and one that is poised to scale and grow.”
Satisfi with the victory joins the WCA”™s Blueprint Accelerator Network for new businesses, which will give the company”™s entrepreneurs free professional services, advertising in local media and access to financing and mentoring in Westchester in addition to the rent-free office space.
Five runners-up for the grand prize competed for a separate junior prize with their business plans and presentations. Courage Health, a startup in White Plains founded by Ryan Villanueva, won the $2,500 junior pitch contest prize. The company has developed a mobile app that presents cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation techniques to treat incidents of depression and anxiety.
Serving with Ritacco as pitch contest judges were Christina Bechhold, co-founder and managing director of Empire Angels; Andrew Ackerman, managing director of Dreamit Ventures New York; Jeffrey Borenstein, consultant at The Small Business Oracle; John Cohn, managing director at Diamond Capital Advisors; and Stanley Freimuth, CEO of Debt Resolve.
More than 700 WCA members and guests attended the organization”™s fall leadership dinner Nov. 20 at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown. Receiving leadership awards were Dr. Steven M. Safyer, president and CEO of Montefiore Health System; William V. Cuddy Jr., executive vice president of CBRE Inc. and chairman of the WCA Blueprint for Westchester; Dr. Laura L. Forese, president of NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System; and Robert A. Glazer, CEO of ENT and Allergy Associates.
