Coalition Snow heats up Biz Pitch competition

Ten teams competed at the 2015 Governor’s Conference on Business’ first business pitch completion Aug. 25 at the Atlantis.

Coalition Snow, a company that makes women’s ski gear, won the first place prize. Each team had two minutes to pitch their business in a “Shark Tank” like style and three minutes to answer questions from a panel of five judges.

“We are Coalition Snow, and we make women’s skis and snowboards that don’t suck,” CEO of Coalition Snow Jen Gurecki said during her business pitch while holding a pair of women’s skis.

The company is made up of a team of women designers focused on performance-driven ski equipment for intermediate to advanced women skiers and snowboarders.

Dragonfly Energy, a company that makes lithium ion batteries, placed second at the competition. Founder Denis Phares explained to the panel how his company is working to manufacture the batteries at half the price of the competition and hopes to attract customers such as Tesla.

The competition was sponsored by AT&T and IQ Technology Solutions. Coalition Snow was presented a check for $5,000 and Dragonfly was presented a check for $2,500 from AT&T at the luncheon at the conference. The IQ Technology Solutions prize was an $8,500 value with $2,500 in products and $6,000 in consulting and managed IT services.

Other businesses competing included Corporate Performance, Dunce Labs, IMBIB Custom Brews, Skyworks Aerial Systems, Irrigo, Boot Roxx, Crowded Reality and Innovum Technologies.

“Just being able to present in front of these business leaders...it’s huge,” Matt Johnson of IMBIB Custom Brews said. “For us, any opportunity to talk about our business is fantastic.”

The panel of judges included Steve Cerocke, president of IQ Technology Solutions; Mark Hutchison, lieutenant governor of Nevada; David Millar, vice president of corporate strategy for Apex Performance Solutions; Ira Gostin, vice president of investor relations for Tahoe Resources; and Kelly Northridge, instructor of entrepreneurship at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Lauren Klein, the CEO of Girlmade, acted as moderator for the event.