Each year during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission (JEDCO) hosts the JEDCO Challenge, a pitch competition showcasing the brightest entrepreneurs living and working in Jefferson Parish.
The 2017 winner of the JEDCO Challenge was Chosen Diagnostics, a startup founded by Sunyoung Kim.
Chosen Diagnostics’ core mission is to improve healthcare delivery for patients by providing diagnostic tests that personalize their treatment. The company is developing a biomarker test that named Neonatal DDx that can diagnose a common and life-threatening gastrointestinal disease in preterm infants.
Back in November, the startup won the New Orleans BioInnovation Center’s BioChallenge, taking home both the $25,000 grand prize and the $2,500 Audience Favorite award.
Chosen Diagnostics now has an additional $20,000 in cash from First NBC Bank, the event sponsor, and other prizes including:
- 25 hours of strategic and competitive intelligence work from Ardyn Thriffiley & Associates
- Ad placement for three half-page ads to run in Biz New Orleans at the end of this year
- Legal services through Carver, Darden, Koretzky, Tessier, Finn, Blossman & Areaux’s Intellectual Property Practice Group
- Insurance consultation with Gillis Ellis and Baker
- Marketing and branding consultation with Touchpoints Marketing & Advertising
- Membership with the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce
- Accounting services with LaPorte CPAs and Business Services
- Presentation training with Connect2Sell
Being selected as the JEDCO Challenge winner is a humbling and emotional experience. All the entrepreneurs in the competition were inspiring and had such great products – I honestly did not know how we would stack up,” said Kim. “The prize is important to an early stage start-up company for both its validation and its cash. To me personally, support of our community is the most valuable asset. The $20,000 prize will be used toward meaningful coverage of three new hospitals in our ongoing clinical trial. It will accelerate this clinical study and its results and get our test in Jefferson Parish hospitals faster.”
The other participating startups included BioAesthetics, Drone Party Planet, IDIYA, and Southern City Farm.
Southern City Farm came in second place, winning an insurance consultation with Daul Insurance and legal assistance through Carver, Darden, Koretzky, Tessier, Finn, Blossman & Areaux’s Intellectual Property Practice Group, a more than $5,000 value.