Archive for 2012

On April 25, 2012, Michael Hartman served on a panel of three to judge a competition of 5 pitches, 5 minutes each, starting at 5 o’clock.

The 5 Across pitch competition is sponsored by the Lexington Venture Club and Awesome, Inc. and features presentations from local entrepreneurs starting or expanding new business ventures.

• Eric Gaines presented Party Tutor: a smartphone app/website.
• Grant Weherley and his team pitched SmartLit – a bluetooth controllable outlet.
• Cameron Lippert pitched Last Call Beverages, a hangover pre-treatment.
• David Nelson presented EHW, LLC which is developing an improved walker for the elderly.
• Tom Dugan pitched Bluestone Geologic which provides Geologic Mapping Services.

Michael Hartman was asked to be the keynote speaker kicking off 2012’s Idea State U business plan and pitch competition. What is Idea State U?

Kentucky’s new statewide business concept and business plan competition is designed to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship by rewarding participating student teams from the commonwealth’s eight four-year state universities. Winning teams will be those judged as having the best new business concepts and business plans for proposed new ventures…

…The competition places emphasis on business concepts and plans that are scored by independent judges as most likely to result in successful, high-growth ventures. This “ready for the real world” emphasis ensures that winning teams will have the best chance of providing a return on the state’s investment by creating high-paying jobs in Kentucky. 

Mr. Hartman spoke about his own experiences as an entrepreneur and gave advice to the 100+ participants in the competition on how to pursue their dream of founding and growing a startup.

Pang Hartman, Vice President and Creative Director of Frogdice, was featured by skirt! Magazine in an article about women in technology.

Now, as the primary designer for their games, Pang is one of very few women in the field. The company prides itself on embracing diversity, and believes in order to succeed you must “put differences aside and celebrate the common areas.” As one of the first in the fledgling industry, Pang states, “We had to be the leaders and learn the hard way.”

Pang Hartman- Girl’s Got Game, skirt! Magazine.

Pang Hartman, Vice President and Creative Director of Frogdice, was asked to speak at the March meeting of the Lexington Venture Club. Pang updated the group on Frogdice’s recent progress and met with other business leaders to discuss potential working partnerships.

Lexington Venture Club

Frogdice is featured as one of the primary case study examples of new tech companies and entrepreneurs growing and receiving investment in Lexington, KY.

Michael Hartman of Frogdice, an on-line gaming developer, says industry leaders repeatedly told him that to grow their company they would have to move. Frogdice already has a successful role-playing game, Threshold; they are growing their business by creating a new game called Coin n’ Carry, and they are also building an offshoot that creates games for other companies. Hartman and his wife travelled to Austin, Texas, and were looking for houses there when they heard about the Innovation and Commercialization Center and, ultimately, Nash.

Nash helped Frogdice stay in Lexington by finding office space, assisting in recruiting employees and, perhaps most importantly, helping find financing.

Making it happen for entrepreneurs, Business Lexington.