When Derek Wragge took his place in the “hot seat” Thursday, his startup concept got a reality check from two venture capital experts who had just heard his 20-minute presentation on FreshFit, a group fitness app.
 
Bill Warner, a fund executive with Wake Forest-based Inception Micro Angel Fund (IMAF) RTP and Brendan Collins of WindRose Capital Ltd. spent Thursday at University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) listening and reacting to the presentations of Wragge and 11 other startups and providing frank feedback from an investor viewpoint. The sessions are designed to help fledgling entrepreneurs by pointing out missing information, questioning overly rosy projections and providing tips for more effective presentations.
 
CIE director Jim Roberts calls these sessions for early-stage ventures “tough love” and has scheduled similar ones each month, inviting entrepreneurship experts from the Triangle and beyond to come and advise would-be entrepreneurs.
 
“It’s better to hear questions now than when you are in front of an investor who might write a check,” he said.
 
Warner and Collins weren’t writing checks from their funds Thursday. Instead, they volunteered their time to give those 12 presentations the once-over. They pressed Wragge for more data, for comparisons with similar, existing fitness apps and for details on how he plans to market his product and garner the levels of usage that will provide adequate revenue.
 
Wragge’s predecessor on the hot seat – a chair in front of Warner and Collins – was Ken VanNeste, an inventor and entrepreneur who works in CIE’s co-working space to roll out his high-tech automotive product. The feedback he received was indeed tough love, he said.
 
“It made me realize the importance of fleshing out all the angles for consideration,” he said. “I need to articulate the value of my product and have better strategies to convince investors. This [presentation] was preparation; I’ve got to be prepared to persuade.”
 
VanNeste intends to submit his invention and business concept to NC IDEA, a not-for-profit organization that serves as a catalyst for young technology companies in the state, mainly by providing early financing in the form of grants. He’s eyeing Friday’s midnight deadline for the next funding round.
 
Roberts said that several other Wilmington startups will also be submitting their concepts to NC IDEA this time.  
 
“Nineteen [Wilmington] companies applied last year, as NC IDEA had their first event here at CIE before we opened,” he said in an email. “We had the second-highest numbers of applicants within the state.”