Cast21 Rises to the Occasion at St. Louis University Real Elevator Pitch Competition

12/10/2015 Ashley Hipsher

Written by Ashley Hipsher

Cast21, a startup that has created a 21st century cast to increase bone healing speed and prevent muscle atrophy, recently took First Place at the St. Louis University Real Elevator Pitch Competition.

The team, composed of three team members, Justin Brooks, senior in electrical engineering, Ashley Moy, senior in Bioengineering and Jason Troutner, senior in mechanical engineering, took home $2,500 and an all expenses paid trip to SXSW in Austin, TX in March.

To enter, teams submitted a 30 second YouTube video of their best elevator pitch. A panel of judges selected the top 10 teams in both the For Profit track and Social Innovation track. Each time pitched their idea on 10 elevator rides that were less than 45 seconds per ride. With each judge only carrying four business cards, the goal for each team was to gather as many business cards as possible—Cast21 ended up in the top three in the For Profit track. The top three finalists then pitched their idea in the backseat of a Tesla Model S in a one-minute drive around downtown St. Louis.

“I was ecstatic when they called the second place team, since that left only our name for first prize,” said Moy. “I was gripping my teammates' hands in anticipation during the awards ceremony, and all of our hands were very sweaty. We were nervous!”

“We are really excited to see a University of Illinois team take home the top prize,” said Ashley Hipsher, Marketing Coordinator at the Technology Entrepreneur Center. “This was a great warm-up for the Cozad New Venture Competition that starts next semester.”


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This story was published December 10, 2015.