Five Questions With: Anthony Mangiarelli

ANTHONY MANGIARELLI, co-chair of the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, encourages anyone who is a would-be entrepreneur to check out one of  the competition's workshops or sessions. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION
ANTHONY MANGIARELLI, co-chair of the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, encourages anyone who is a would-be entrepreneur to check out one of the competition's workshops or sessions. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

Anthony J. Mangiarelli, co-chair of the 2016 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, talked about the kickoff event for the competition coming up on Oct. 15 and the new medical technology award. The business plan competition was established in 2000, and to date, has awarded more than $1.8 million in prizes. Nov. 1 is the date applications can be submitted.

PBN: How come you are offering the Med-Tech Award this year?
MANGIARELLI:
: We were approached by Med Mates, which is a Rhode Island Med-Tech networking group that provides seminars and support to the med-tech community, about them wanting to establish an award and they recognized the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition already had the platform set up. They thought it would be great if we collaborated together to offer the award this year, as Rhode Island has a growing med-tech community. In past years, we have had a lot of submissions and some finalists in the med-tech community.

PBN: How does the free MedTech Development Road-Map workshop on Nov. 4 tie into it?
MANGIARELLI:
: We have a few workshops this year. The kickoff is on Oct. 15 and we have the Elevator Pitch contest on Dec. 3, then we will have six workshops beginning in November through March and they will deal with creating a business plan, presenting a business plan, going from your idea to an actual business and this year, we added a few that specifically target the med-tech community – the Med-Tech Development Road-Map on Nov. 4, Med-Tech Startup Law 101 on Jan. 20 and Med-Tech Regulatory Realities session on March 2. We’re working with Med Mates. We invite the whole general public, provided they register.
PBN: What do you think attendees get out of participating in the competition?
MANGIARELLI:
: I would say that attendees get several benefits, such as meeting service providers or other entrepreneurs that can assist them, and listening to a panel of experts in their field who are available for questions afterwards. It also connects them to the start-up community in Rhode Island, which isn’t as fragmented as in other cities. Attending gives you a good idea of who you should be speaking with and when. Meeting service providers could be anything from a vendor or a customer or some sort of consultant like an attorney or CPA. I encourage anyone who is a would-be entrepreneur to check out one of our sessions or to feel free to reach out.

PBN: How many winners do you usually have from the competition?
MANGIARELLI:
: Typically we have seven finalists, and of the seven, we have a winner in the student track which means the team has to be enrolled in higher education degree, undergraduate or graduate level, then an overall entrepreneur winner and then the med-tech winner this year. Three will receive the ultimate prizes … We give as much money as we can raise. Historically, prizes are valued at $200,000.

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PBN: Do you follow up with them to see how they are doing a year later – do any success stories come to mind?
MANGIARELLI:
: We try to keep in touch with the alumni frequently. On Oct. 15, we will feature the three overall winners from last year who will speak about what they did to stand out in the competition and where they are a year later. HM Solution was the overall winner last year. They are sisters from Chile, and one was a semifinalist years ago and she kept at it. Two years ago, CompNet Insurance Solutions won. CompNet’s Dave Bedard is now actively pursuing a Series A round. Premama was a winner a few years ago. It makes a prenatal vitamin powder. We’ve had some great winners and some great finalists.

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