Three Startups Announced for Premier Pitch Competition at NOEW

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) kicks off on Sunday, March 24. The annual festival of entrepreneurship and innovation is host to panels, pitches, keynotes, and networking events.

The IDEApitch, taking place on Friday, March 29, is a premier pitch competition and culimination of NOEW where three local startups present to top investors for a $50,000 investment prize. Each year, only startups poised for rapid and high growth are selected for IDEApitch. The investment prize goes towards the startup’s next open round of funding.

“The IDEApitch is an opportunity for the region’s next three breakout companies to announce themselves on a national stage by pitching in front of local and national investors and a live audience,” shared a representative for NOEW.

This year’s IDEApitch finalists are RentCheck, SampleChain, and TrayAway.

Judges for the 2019 IDEApitch include: Patrick Comer, CEO, Lucid; Jim Coulter, Founding Partner, TPG Capital; Ben Cappiello, Chief Business Officer, AxoSim; Shelly Porges, Founder & Managing Partner, The Billion Dollar Fund; and Tara Hernandez, President, JCH+ Properties

Read more about each of the finalists:

  • RentCheck – Marco Nelson and Lydia Winkler, co-founders
    • RentCheck can service 21 million independent landlords and small businesses who manage 95 percent of the rental market. Founded in 2018, RentCheck is an app that saves money, time and prevents grief by standardizing move-in and move-out inspections and streamlining the security deposit deduction process for landlords.
  • SampleChain – Vignesh Krishnan, CEO & Founder
    • SampleChain is a technology company in the market research (MR) space that helps fight fraud, enhance data quality, and increase efficiency in the MR ecosystem. SampleChain was founded in September 2018.
  • TrayAway – Josh Johnston, President and Co-Founder & Will Lovett, CTO & Co-Founder
    • TrayAway launched in March 2018 to help enhance the hotel guest experience and ensure beautiful hallways are never cluttered with dirty room service trays. TrayAway provides hotels with a combination of hardware and software-as-a-service to effectively manage their operation. TrayAway’s current hotel clients include brands such as Fairmont, Ritz Carlton, St. Regis, Montage, Hilton, J.W. Marriott, and many others. Hotels are currently utilizing TrayAway in North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

To view the full schedule of NOEW events or to register, visit noew.org.