Entrepreneur competition held at Salisbury University
Thursday afternoon, entrepreneurs from all across the region pitched their businesses to a panel of judges, hoping to get their hands on a piece of the $90,000 prize. Bill Burke, Director of entrepreneurial activities at Salisbury University tells 47ABC that it’s about more than just the money saying “one, yes is the funds that they receive – but what has transpired is that their business has been vetted and validated by our Shore Hatchery Board – the board consists of a number of successful business people from the community.”
The competition was started by the Philip and Carole Ratcliffe Foundation. In 2013, they gave $1 million to the Perdue School of Business to establish the Ratcliffe Shore Hatchery. Every semester from 2013 to 2018, a competition will be held, and this was the 6th of 10 of those competitions.
After the Shark Tank style pitches by the entrepreneurs, they anxiously awaited the judge’s decision as deliberation continued behind closed doors. When it was finally time for the decision – Mobtown fermentation walked away the big winner – netting a third of all the money up for grabs. The Baltimore based company told 47ABC the story of how they started brewing a drink called Kombucha — a fermented tea-based drink with roots in the third century.
“I experimented for several years after the recipe and the equipment was passed down to us – and used friends and family to test it out to see if they like the flavors – then when we moved into our first facility – we started sales in February 2015” says Adam Bufano, co-founder and co-owner of Mobtown Fermentation. His step-brother, Sergio Malarin, continued saying “over the past year and couple months we’ve grown to over 70 clients including Whole Foods – Mom’s Organic Market – we’re in the Baltimore Orioles clubhouse – Yes! Organic in D.C.”
The duo (and Sidharth Sharna, a co-owner who was not at the competition) believe they walked away with big money due to the potential growth – given their competition is mainly on the west coast. Malarin cites a recent Forbes article while telling 47ABC “The kombucha industry is going to be worth 1.8 billion by 2020 – most of that growth is going to happen on the east coast”
With an ecosystem of successful business people for mentorship, and $30,000 to grow their business. The entrepreneurs summed up their experience with a million dollar smile.
