Vesto Proof Points 1 of 5 Wednesday, April 10, 2013

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Proof Points

OVERVIEW

Project Vesto is a $100,000 seed capital competition by Nevadans for Nevadans. The premise of the

competition resembles the popular TV show Shark Tank combined with Kickstarter, the online funding

platform. By submitting a one-page business model canvas, entrants are given the chance for a five

minute pitch to a panel of experienced investors. The final winner of the $100,000 competition is

determined by online popular vote.

ENTRIES

By the December 31st, 2012 deadline, 232 complete BMC submissions for Project Vesto were received;

greater than the sum of all other business plan competitions

within the State of Nevada. 1 Based upon the requirements

that all entrants have a cofounder, Vesto has likely engaged

more than 500 of Nevada’s entrepreneurs. Additionally, this

competition reached an entirely new demographic with an

average age of 43.5 years old with a range of 20 to 75 years

old from all around the state.

1 In 2012 the Governor’s Cup had 68 teams, Sontag has 24, the SNBPC (UNLV) had 30, and it appears as though SNC

had 3 (though I am not 100% on that). In all that is 125 teams. I have not been able to find the totals for TMCC or the NV High School competition, but even CalTech Flow only had 83 teams through all 12 western states last year. Aggregating all of the numbers I have, we are still only at 208 (and that includes all of CalTech.

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Vesto Proof Points 2 of 5 Wednesday, April 10, 2013

PITCHING

128 teams in Reno and 104 teams in Las Vegas were scheduled to pitch in front of 3-5 of our 39 judges

over the course of four days on two weeks: February 8th and 9th in Reno and February 15th and 16th in Las

Vegas. 189 teams showed up to pitch with 15 No-Call No-Shows and 28 requesting to withdraw prior to

their pitch day.

The 39 judges participating in Project Vesto were as follows:

Allison Wren Doug Erwin Jim Holmes Rich Rubsamen

Andrew Hardin Dusty Wunderlich John Moran Richard Ethington

Andy White Felix Danciu John Sherriff Rob Nielsen

Angela Douglas Ian McNeil Josh Stech Sid Johnston

Bob Hart Jade Anderson Justin McVay Stu Feigin

Bob Richardson James Koenig Kevin Tappan Tilio Lagatta

Bryan Clark Jason Mendenhall Lisa Boughner Toby Mathis

Cheri Hill Jay Maharjan Mark Brennan Walt Borland

Chris Howard Jeff Pickett Mark Helow Xavier Cross

Dave Wertzberger Jeffrey Marks Michael Schnabel

INDUSTRIES

A preliminary evaluation of the industries of BMC’s submitted suggest the following:

14%

12%

11%

9% 8%

6%

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1% 1%

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1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Rough Industry Breakdown Food / Beverage / Agriculture Arts / Entertainment Mobile / Social / Web / SoftTech Health & Fitness / Medical CleanTech / Environmental Home / Maintenance / Consumer Goods Safety & Security / Defense Education Construction / Engineering / Real Estate Transportation Sports / Recreation Traditional Marketing / MM Production Clothing / Accessories Finance / Trade / Crowdfunding Luxury / Pet / Jewelry Non-Profit? Career Services / Startup Services Print / Publishing Hard Tech / Comm / IT - Mining Resource Management / Waste 3D Printing / Maker Movement Consulting Senior Care

FINALISTS

Based upon the judges scoring, 12 finalists were announced in packed houses (160+ at Reno City Hall

and 70+ at the InNEVation Center) via a live-streaming presentation in Reno and Las Vegas on March

14th, 2013:

Arsilica, Inc

Fitronix, Incorporated

High Powered Mobile

Welding and Repair

Hotlap.co

Jadon Foods

ListSanity

Loogla

Marie Gibson Management

& Consulting LLC

NTI Products

Reno Public Market

Sport-Social

Trust Your Journey LLC

NEXT STEPS

Moving forward the plan is to launch online voting at the www.ves.to website where teams have

created strategic marketing plans and one blog post each for vote-conversion including text, images and

videos. The pre-launch site is staged at www.ves.to/finalists/

MEDIA PLACEMENTS:

KOLO: http://www.kolotv.com/news/headlines/Businesses-Compete-for-100K-in-Local-Online-

Competition-181589891.html

KUNR Beyond the Headlines: http://www.kunr.org/news/beyond-the-headlines-project-vesto--

almost-somewhere

Downtown Vegas Podcast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfBzzbF03YQ

Vegasstartups.com: http://www.vegasstartups.com/2012/11/26/100k-nevada-business-

competition-project-vesto/

VegasTech.com: http://vegastech.com/project-vesto-100k-business-competition/

Associated Press – November / December Push (Hundreds of locations including):

o http://carsonnow.org/story/11/24/2012/program-aims-jumpstart-nevada-upstarts

o http://www.8newsnow.com/story/20174834/program-aims-to-jumpstart-nevada-

upstarts?clienttype=printable

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o http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/nov/24/nv-jumpstarting-upstarts/

o http://www.lvrj.com/news/nevada-startup-competition-to-award-100-000-to-fledgling-

business-180741041.html

o http://www.rgj.com/viewart/20121124/NEWS/311240041/Program-aims-jumpstart-

Nevada-upstarts

o http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/Program-aims-to-jumpstart-Nevada-

upstarts-4063468.php

o http://elkodaily.com/business/entrepreneurs-vie-for-nevada-k-upstart-

prize/article_ae85e76a-5c4d-11e2-89cf-001a4bcf887a.html

o http://www.lvrj.com/news/nevada-startup-competition-to-award-100-000-to-fledgling-

business-180741041.html

o http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-01-11/entrepreneurs-vie-for-nevada-100k-

upstart-prize

Las Vegas Sun: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/dec/12/joe-downtown-state-program-

offers-100k/

Vegas Inc: http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2013/jan/15/contest-attract-tech-companies-

nevada-enters-next-/

KRNV News 4: http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/One-Nevada-business-idea-to-

receive-100-000/TdmWy_R6TkS268jOONO_yQ.cspx

Vegas Startups: http://www.vegasstartups.com/2013/01/16/232-nevada-companies-and-500-

nevada-entrepreneurs-set-to-compete-for-100k-in-project-vesto

Reno Gazette Journal: http://blogs.rgj.com/renorebirth/2012/12/22/big-idea-gatherings-give-

reno-a-vibrant-edge/

Vegasinc: http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2012/dec/03/deadline-extended-state-business-

competition/

Most recent:

o 3/15: Reno Gazette Journal, “12 Startups Remain in $100,000 Project Vesto Contest”

o 3/15: Las Vegas Sun, “Statewide Business Startup Contest Finalists Named”

o 3/18: RGJ.com, “7 startups from Reno, 5 from Vegas left to vie for $100K”

o 3/20: Las Vegas Startups.com, “Project Vesto Finalists”

WEB AND SOCIAL STATS

As of the 1st of February, 2013:

9,500 all-time unique visitors to the www.ves.to website

915 Facebook Likes (daily reach of 2,000 – 5,000 people)

482 @ProjectVesto Twitter followers

380 email addresses signed up to receive updates about Project Vesto and the entrepreneurial

community

Vesto Proof Points 5 of 5 Wednesday, April 10, 2013

PARTICIPANT SURVEY

In surveying Project Vesto participants prior to the Finalist Announcement on March 14th, 2013, of 74

surveys returned (~40% of pitching teams):

78% had not “participated in other Startup or Entrepreneurship competitions before” Project

Vesto

89% of participants say their overall experience with Project Vesto was positive (not indifferent

or negative) and 54% of respondents classify their overall experience with Project Vesto as

“Awesome - Love it (Best).” One respondent classified his experience as slightly negative out of

two categories of negative.

86% said they would “Participate in Project Vesto again regardless of the outcome”

92% said they are, “interested in connecting with other entrepreneurs in Project Vesto and the

community” and 93% said they are “interested in connecting with other Project Vesto entrants

with similar/complimentary ideas.”

More detailed summary statistics are below:

o The following scale was used for these answers:

5 - Awesome - Love it (Best)

4 - Pretty Good

3 - Okay (Indifferent)

2 - Not Great

1 - Needs some Love (Worst)

N/A – IDK

Design (curb appeal) of the Project Vesto Website (www.ves.to) 4.08

Ease of use of the www.ves.to website? 4.05

Quality of information available on the www.ves.to website? 3.91

The usefulness of the Business Model Canvas? 3.99

Resources, videos, and tips provided via www.ves.to and Vesto emails? 4.16

The quality of communication from NIREC & Project Vesto? 4.20

The quality of engagement & content on Facebook & Twitter? 3.88

Our overall responsiveness? 4.43

The pitch facilities? 4.28

The food, snacks and drinks available to participants? 3.96

The professionalism of Vesto staff & volunteers? 4.58

Usefulness of the Orientation session? 4.30

The format of the pitches (5-min + 5-min Q&A)? 3.84

The quality of the judges' questions? 4.26

Your Overall Experience with Project Vesto so far? 4.42