It’s one thing to say that you’ve created a revolutionary device or process that’s going to solve the world’s water problems. It’s quite another to tell a panel of well-heeled investors about it — and then ask them for money.
That’s what five entrepreneurs did recently during a clean water-focused pitch event in Alexandria, VA, modeled after the popular TV show, “Shark Tank.”
On the show, aspiring inventors and innovators pitch their business dreams to a half-dozen potential investors, with TV-worthy results. Some ideas incite a bidding war among the investors; others are dead on arrival.
There was no feeding frenzy at the Alexandria event, as entrepreneurs pitched turning chicken manure into salable products or cleaning contaminated water with a tornado-like device. But there were several let’s-talk-later overtures from the panel of “Potomac Piranhas” charged with quickly deciding whether to invest in the ideas.
Gore Bolton formed (and trademarked) the Potomac Piranhas group that hosted the event at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to unite the private capital of the tech startup world with the innovators who are beginning to tackle one of the region’s biggest problems: clean water.
“We really just want to get people to start investing in businesses that are viable in and of themselves but that also can improve the watershed,” Bolton said.
The effort started with a “hackathon” last year that brought people with technology and investment backgrounds together to brainstorm new concepts for cleaning up the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay watershed. They wanted to view water as a resource rather than a liability and to see what business ideas the concept might spur.
One of the 12 businesses that applied to pitch to the Piranhas formed its team and concept at the hackathon. After vetting the ideas, five of the entrepreneurs were scheduled to pitch their ideas live to the panel at the event, which Bolton hopes will be the first of many.
“We turn manure into money-saving, revenue-generating technology for the farmers,” Chris Haug, CEO of Triea Technologies, LLC, said at the outset of his presentation.
After a morning of panel discussions on innovation, capital and entrepreneurship, Haug was the first to pitch.
Hedrick Belin, president of the Potomac Conservancy laid out the ground rules: Each company would have 15 minutes to describe their idea and try to strike a deal with one of the Piranhas.
Haug started off by explaining how his company turns an abundance of one resource — animal manure — into products that help farms operate more efficiently with less waste. Triea sells “heat recovery systems” that harvest heat from composting manure to keep animals warm and a “Quick Wash” product that turns manure into products that can be applied as fertilizer or sold.
“We all know animals have to poop. They do it every day, and that’s not going to stop,” Haug said of his inventory for making the products.
David Goodenow, CEO of Dragonfly Landing and one of the Piranhas, had some questions before he could consider investing in the company: How much does a unit go for? How many contracts are in the pipeline?
After some tense back-and-forth, Goodenow said that he was “out.” He doesn’t think sales will match projections. The other investors followed suit, but Eddie Graves, CEO of Chrome Consulting, said, “let’s talk later.
The other pitches proceeded in a similar manner, with inventors and innovators getting feedback on whether their ideas — innovative as they were — could be marketable and profitable.
“We need the eco-capital businesses to get the same level of scrutiny” as other sectors, Bolton said, and he told the investors that when he recruited them. He encouraged them to ask, “How’s it going to benefit the planet, and how are you going to pay for it?”
For Karen Sorber, CEO of Micronic Technologies, the pitch event wasn’t her first — and she came out with guns blazing.
“We have an absolutely revolutionary water technology device that’s going to change the world,” she said, going on to describe the handful of government grants her company recently earned to bring the product to market.
She then showed a video of her company’s tornado-induced mechanical evaporation technology at work. In it, water swirled in a tornado-like pattern inside a clear cylinder that, Sorber explained, was evaporating clean water and leaving contaminants, whether salt or toxic chemicals, behind.
She said their test results showed it can remove nuclear waste, stormwater pollutants, nitrates and phosphates from the water.
The piranhas largely agreed that the technology was impressive, but they still didn’t bite on investing — at least not right now.
Sorber, whose company recently landed more than $3 million in grants, challenged the investors that the government was more willing to take a risk on this technology than the private sector.
“The government has more money,” Graves said.
Still, organizers saw the event as a success; one that got conversations started between the funders and the innovators.
“I think it’s clear that we’re going to need to bring every possible solution we can to clean up our local waters,” Belin said after the event.
He was encouraged to see examples of how market forces — rather than government regulation or incentives — could help reduce water pollution.
It looks like entrepreneurs will have another chance to pitch their ideas.
Bolton said a Hollywood agent has contacted him about turning the concept into its own show.
“Think of ‘American Idol’ and ‘Shark Tank’ cross-pollinated,” he said. “We’re in negotiations.”