And the Winner of The Pitch Is …

Dan Tropeano, executive director of UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania and Delaware, and The Pitch winners, Parth Chauhan and Zeel Patel of HomeGrown Farms.

The spotlight was on Philly entrepreneurs Wednesday evening during the culminating event of The Pitch presented by UnitedHealthcare.

Back in June, we put a call out for the city’s best business ideas. We received more than 120 submissions, and on Wednesday evening the top five finalists presented their pitches before an audience of innovation-minded Philadelphians. At the end of the presentations, Dan Tropeano, executive director of UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania and Delaware, announced HomeGrown Farms as the winner of the inaugural competition.

HomeGrown Farms, a company that uses indoor hydroponics to yield produce, took home the $30,000 grand prize, which includes funding from UnitedHealthcare and advertising in Philadelphia magazine. HomeGrown Farms will also have the opportunity to present their business at Thinkfest on November 15th. And as an added bonus, the HomeGrown Farms team, Parth Chauchan, Raghav Garg, Zeel Patel, and Pranav Kaul, will take an all-expense paid trip to attend the Optum Innovation, Research and Development Garage workshop, where they’ll revamp their business plan with innovation experts at Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.

And in the words of last night’s esteemed emcee, Saxbys Coffee CEO Nick Bayer, don’t ever let anyone tell you that entrepreneurship doesn’t exist in Philadelphia. The other finalists — StaffGeek, Coded by U, Perseus Mirrors and Round Trip — all identified an important problem they wanted to address and described how their Philly-born enterprises are already creating pathways to solutions. After fielding tough questions from an eager audience, all of the teams came out on top.

Here are some photos from the event.

Nick Bayer tells the audience about his experience as an entrepreneur in Philly.

The Pitch judges in the front row. From left to right: Dan Tropeano, Douglas Green, Fabiola Cineas, Archna Sahay, and Wayne Kimmel.

StaffGeek explains how their service is shaking up the staffing industry.

Sylvester Mobley of Coded by U takes a question from Nick Bayer.

RoundTrip presents the blueprints for their non-emergency on-demand medical transportation platform.

The Perseus Mirrors team tells the audience about their revolutionary smart mirror.

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