Original post by Gerry Smith via HuffingtonPost
For Chris Collins, all the hours spent building a website, developing relationships with food vendors and rehearsing his pitch had come down to this: He had seven minutes to persuade a room filled with investors that his company will revolutionize the way people book caterers.
“Catering is broken!” Collins said on stage.
Wearing a black blazer, a white button-down shirt and jeans, Collins saidCaterCow.com makes it easier to find caterers, compare prices and pay for their services. What’s more, his company already has a steady source of revenue by taking a cut of every transaction.
“We have a business model that’s working,” he told the audience of 400 investors, many wearing suits. “We have a team in place to execute this. Now all we need is awesome people like you!”
Collins was one of several entrepreneurs on Friday to present their businesses to investors on “demo day” inside an office building in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The young companies had just graduated from the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, a three-month boot camp for startups that gives entrepreneurs $25,000, office space in Times Square, and the chance to pitch their businesses to venture capitalists who could fund their startups and potentially make them wealthy.
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