Budding lifestyle entrepreneurs had a chance to compete for cash prizes during a business pitch competition hosted by Berks LaunchBox.

Berks LaunchBox, a business accelerator program supported by Penn State Berks, held the latest installment of the biannual contest June 25 at the Gaige Technology & Business Innovation Building on the Penn State Berks campus.

The event saw 11 contestants making their case before a panel of over a dozen judges made up of retired business executives, current entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals from the Berks Launchbox business mentors network.

The $1,000 first prize went to Brooklyn Smith-Jones of BK Shanae Candle Co., a Lancaster-based mobile candle pouring company that allows customers to sample aromas and create custom candles that use natural ingredients.

Dr. Phillip Tietbohl took the $600 second place award for his interactive poetry performance initiative, Poetry That Works.

A third place prize of $400 was awarded to Alison Woo of Alison Woo Designs, which offers custom handcrafted jewelry that incorporates precious stones.

Contestants were selected by LaunchBox personnel based on a pitch application that tasked applicants with presenting a unique solution to a problem they’d like their product or service to solve.

This version of the pitch competition was aimed at entrepreneurs with plans of creating or operating lifestyle business in Berks County, said Seth Shriner, entrepreneur and startup coach at Berks Launchbox.

“Most business competitions tend to favor flashy products or startups, but we wanted our competition to be aimed at entrepreneurs developing smaller lifestyle businesses, our ‘storefront dreamers,’” Shriner said.

Contestants had four weeks to develop a “pitchdeck” presentation showcasing their business model, core team, financial projections and more, and worked with LaunchBox personnel to fine-tune their offerings.

“As an entrepreneur and former pitch competition winner myself, I know what they are going through,” Shriner said. “I’m proud to say we made sure each of our competitors had our support from the day they were accepted to compete to the big day of the competition.”

Shriner noted the competition was designed to allow judges to provide key feedback to contestants.

“The judges scores and feedback were captured via our online judges’ scorecard and were provided to the entrepreneur following the pitch competition,” Shriner said. “This is a unique idea that we wanted to test to provide valuable feedback from all the judges to the entrepreneur and the ability to follow up with the the judges for further advice and mentorship.”

Berks LaunchBox usually holds two pitch competitions annually, one in June and one in November, Shriner said.

“Each of us at the Berks Launchbox are extremely passionate about helping Berks entrepreneurs and supporting our local entrepreneurial community,” Shriner said. “We are very proud of the competitors and the Launchbox is continuing to work with them as they develop their businesses and begin making their own impact across Berks.”

For more information on pitch competitions and other Berks LaunchBox opportunities, visit berkslaunchbox.psu.edu.