AS AN EVENT PLANNER RON RILEY’S BEEN doing this a long time. Well, not this exactly. Nothing like this. This, known as American Dream Seekers, is something else — more than a year in the planning.

On Sat., October 25, 50 inventor-entrepreneurs, the semi-finalists in a monthslong process that included pitches from as far away as Dubai, New Zealand and Malaysia, will arrive on the campus of Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers from 17 states and all over Florida. There, they will present their business plans to judges with deep pockets.

By evening, one will win $5,000 and others may find investors to power up their ideas. All of it’s public. Speakers who have succeeded as entrepreneurs will offer presentations to attendees throughout the day. Tickets range from $5 to $25 and can be purchased at www.americandreamseekers.com, where ideas and competitors can also be viewed in brief summaries.

The event includes high-profile business and political leaders serving as judges in a first-of-its-kind regional public festival of the entrepreneurial spirit, modeled in part on ABC’s reality TV show, Shark Tank. There, entrepreneurs pitch their ideas under the blinding light of public scrutiny to judges who decide whether to fund them, or not.

“I took on the role of executive producer, so I do what the Shark Tank people do — I review every step of the process,” says Mr. Riley, owner of R.J. Riley & Company event planners.

Among the many ideas the entrepreneurs will pitch are technical applications for business or science, food or food use notions or products, lifestyle-safety products, fashion and apparel ideas, and others.

For example:

* High-fashion men’s neckties capable of heating both neck and chest in cold weather with a small battery that can also be used to charge a cell-phone.

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* A “mobile application/text notification system (that) will alert consumers of discounts on near-expiring produce and other perishable good in their local grocery stores in order to liquidate fresh food,” which could be cheaper for the consumer, more effective and economical for the grocer, and a way of reducing greenhouse emissions in landfills, according to the entrepreneur.

* An idea to distribute worldwide “the world’s first functional artificial finger for amputees (which has) changed the way finger amputees are treated in the U.S. today.”

Mr. Riley and his team, which included one former Shark Tank competitor who had been through the process and knew what Shark Tank did to help bring the entrepreneurs up to par, look for three qualities in the bold, brilliant and ambitious, he says.

“Knowledge, first. Know not only your product and business, but know the competition and the market.

“Second, the ability to be extremely persuasive.

“And finally entertainment, humor and just passion — that’s an intangible in some ways.”

Presenting entrepreneurs also include those who aim to distribute cheese cake or barbecue sauces and rubs; those who will suggest design or use changes in buildings to turn power expenditures into profits, they say; an entrepreneur who is developing a system that will allow field scientists to collect and store data and metadata without any reliance on hand-written records or photos, thus reducing errors associated with those and providing both the parameters and various fields of data for given disciplines. In marine biology, for example, the system “would bring up fields for dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, temperature and ORP.”

No matter how good their ideas, most entrepreneurs start the process of pitch with some rough edges, when it comes to their own brain children.

“There is a definite different eco-culture and ecosystem of entrepreneurs,” says Mr. Riley. “They think a little differently, a little off-center in focus because they are completely laser-beamed about their business — and they need help. Some don’t know how to raise money, some don’t know how to pitch well enough. That’s where we brought value.”

Judges and speakers together form a compliment of turbo-charged entrepreneurial engines capable of bringing significant value to any who attend — they’re people who have made millions by relying on ingenuity, inventiveness and hard-nosed business acumen. Which is just what they’re looking for in the competitors.

But the competition might also bring forward those qualities in investors, creating a perfect storm of opportunity for all, not just the entrepreneurs, says Craig Pisaris-Henderson, a 44-year-old Fort Myers-based superstar in the entrepreneurial world. He will service as one of the judges in the semi-final round of American Dream Seekers.

Mr. Pisaris-Henderson, who now heads Lexos Media, has built a number of companies, including FindWhat.com that ultimately went public and had just under $1 billion capital on the NASDAQ — and he’s raised $250 million for various ventures over time, he says.

He knows what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and it’s not just a good idea. It’s also a good investor.

“I’ve built companies large and small, and one that became publicly traded, and even though I tried to access local investors early on, they weren’t available. A lot of resources here hadn’t been organized yet — no one had put them in an organized system.”

American Dream Seekers, he adds, may help change what amounts to investor malaise in a region of great investor muscle.

“We have a wealthy area for finance and brain power, and most folks here who have been large business people, they come here from elsewhere to relax and not build their businesses.”

So they miss opportunities.

On the day of competition, the 50 entrepreneurs who qualified as semifinalists will be culled to five finalists by late afternoon. Those five will present to the final-round judges in the evening, vying the $5,000 prize.

Among the final-round judges are Michael Dent, a co-founder of InLight Capital Partners; Mark Farron of Kadima Consulting; Derek Vest, the founder of GenTech Pharmaceutical; David Diamond, a co-founder and owner of Diamond DeAngelis Construction, which includes a group of businesses; Steve Walling, who heads SJW Strategic solutions; and Timothy Cartwright, who manages Fifth Avenue Advisors in Naples, along with the Tamiami Angel Group of investors in two separate funds that have been powering up entrepreneurs with solid capitol for several years.

Geographically, the investors range from Marco Island to Sarasota. Economically, they’ve anted up millions so far, “to collectively make private equity investments in promising early stage through expansion stage commercial ventures,” in the boilerplate words of the Tamiami Angel Group.

So far, the second of those angel funds, created last March with 39 investors and known as T2, has invested $850,000 of a $2.85 million fund to date (the goal for T2 is $5 million) in five entrepreneurial ideas that were once in the competition stage themselves. Now, they have moved far beyond that into real-world success.

In addition, members of the T2 have thrown in an additional $700,000-plus to support ideas they like, on their own, notes Mr. Cartwright.

This kind of support is where the competitors jumping into American Dream Seekers want to be. On the other hand, the entrepreneurs T2 is supporting also may hint at which way the world of entrepreneurship is going.

Those ventures include Naples-based MassiveU, which designs on-line education and training programs; Miamibased Senzari, which offers an on-line engine to recommend music in playlists or song lists based on all public information provided about an individual — but this idea has a social component, too. Friends can help create the playlists, even based on who the individual is with at the time and what they all might like to hear together.

There is also Detroit-based Level 11, which follows and collects all the data that sales personnel are supposed to provide about their calls, contacts, number of meetings with decision makers, what they say and how they present their ideas — and then allows management to set up competitions among them, and enforce right behavior.

Or the Miami-based company 71 Pounds, a company that tracks your Fed-Ex or UPS shipments and holds those companies to their guarantees: if a shipment comes in even one minute late, 71 Pounds recovers the cost of shipping as promised, takes 30 percent, and returns 70 percent to your business or account. And not only that, adds Mr. Cartwright, but if you live in a highrise above ground floor commercial operations, for example, the company will ensure you get the benefits and guarantees of personal, not commercial, deliveries — including delivery to your door and not a business downstairs, if warranted.

Finally, there’s an entrepreneurial start-up called Moveable, a Clevelandbased company that offers “an internet enabled small wearable device that tracks your physical movement,” says Mr. Cartwright.

Aimed at Fortune 500 companies or digital education programs in which students can take physical education courses on-line, the device allows monitors to judge the level of activity of individuals.

In the case of the companies, managers can require employees to stay healthy enough, based on the level of activity, to help lower health care costs across the board for everybody.

In any of these ventures, says Mr. Cartwright, success will not ultimately be achieved unless both entrepreneurs and investors can together create an alchemy he calls “deal flow.”

As a judge of the finalists in American Dream Seekers, that’s what he hopes to see on the crucial day — nearly instant deal flow.

“The number of deals you see is the lifeblood that keeps your organization alive,” he explains. “So when I get a chance to look at (these entrepreneurs in one place) I’m going to be there, and so should any other serious investors. There are lessons here for the entrepreneur, but also lessons and benefits for the investor.”

Among those benefits might be onestop shopping, in effect.

“Think about what an individual angel investor has to do to go about attracting deal flow,” says Mr. Cartwright. “He has to go meet with an attorney, with an accountant, with the economic development director. He might have to try to arrange a meeting with the university. So actually finding good deal flow is a challenge for an individual investor.

“But here with American Dream Seekers you have prepackaged deal flow already vetted by the community and business leaders that could take months to develop, otherwise.”

And that could prove good not only for those who attend the competitive culmination of American Dream Seekers, but somebody for the community at large, as companies and jobs pour in, seeking a climate in which entrepreneurs are born. ¦ 

NORTH NAPLES. Fla. - A “Shark Tank”-style investment group in Naples has bitten, putting its money behind a local education technology startup.

The Tamiami Angel Fund II has invested $330,000 in MassiveU, a growing company founded by Angelo Biasi in 2012. The company, offering a mobile learning platform, continues to evolve.

On top of the money from the angel fund, several of the fund’s investors put up $370,000 of their own money to help accelerate MassiveU’s growth.

The latest investments are on top of the initial $370,000 the company received in its earlier stages from the Tamiami Angel Fund 1, which involved many of the same investors, mostly from Naples and Sarasota.

Through the two funds, MassiveU — based in North Naples — now has raised more than $1 million. The company received more money than it asked for in this latest round.

“We thought, ‘Let’s trust this entrepreneur with some more capital and see how much he can continue to grow the business,’ ” said Tim Cartwright, the fund’s chairman and one of its investors.

The company is the only local business to receive money from the two funds, which combined have made 14 investments in nine companies, after receiving more than 1,300 applications and hearing more than 60 presentations from their top picks.

Companies make their pitches like they would on the hit TV show “Shark Thank,” with investors sitting around a large boardroom table, which seats about 40 members.

“Think of presenting in front of 40 sharks, instead of just five,” Cartwright said.

The second fund has made five investments — and its investors are looking to grow the fund, now at $2.85 million, up to $5 million, with more members.

MassiveU started out with Biasi’s idea to build the world’s first mobile-first learning platform, by offering apps that would allow educators, publishers and trainers to deliver learning to any mobile phone, tablet or online screen.

The company’s focus has shifted a bit, and its services are now more project-based. Its platform is geared more toward college and career readiness — and now incorporates social media.

“We are working primarily through publishers now,” Biasi said. “We are now more of a business to business company, but also are still working with the schools to get our technology in the hands of K (kindergarten) through career students, who are learning differently these days.

“They are consuming content differently these days. They are digitally social. They are mobile first, they are game- oriented. They are very project based.”

The company now has five full-time employees and a team of 12 behind it, including contract employees.

“Things are going great,” said Biasi, a former New York University professor. “We’ve expanded our team. We’ve built out our platform. We are executing on several large relationships and growing at pace for a technology company.”

One of the reasons the angel investors like the company is its strong management team, which includes John Gamba Jr., who started and sold five Internet companies over a 20-year career, including one that fetched $182 million after NTI Group Inc. purchased it, then sold it to Blackboard Inc.

“We’ve seen really, really good results with customers, and we see a very robust sales pipeline for new customers,” Cartwright said.

Some of the company’s first clients were local, including Collier County Public Schools and Florida Gulf Coast University in south Lee County.

MassiveU will use some its latest investment capital to further build out its technical platform to take advantage of opportunities in Latin America and other countries.

The company has the potential to make a real difference in delivering 21st-century skills to students, said Don Kiernan, a member of the Tamiami Angel Fund II, who also sits on MassiveU’s board.

“MassiveU is going to enhance the learning process in the country and worldwide,” he said.

The investors would make their money when MassiveU sells, or others buy them out, or if the company goes public, Cartwright explained. With their investments, the members gained equity in the company, and now own stock in it, he said.

None of the companies the funds have invested in has sold yet, but there haven’t been any failures yet either, Cartwright said, noting they are risky investments.

“We are eagerly anticipating our first company to have a profitable exit,” he said. Asked if that might happen soon, Cartwright said, “You know, I’m hopeful, but it’s nothing I can announce.”


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The Tamiami Angel Fund II (T2) announced a $330,000 investment in MassiveU, a Naples-based education technology company.

MassiveU, which started as the world’s first mobile MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), is accelerating its growth as a project-based, social learning Platform-As-A-Service (PLAAS) company. The company works with content providers, publishers and school district leaders to deliver learning solutions that help students prepare for college and careers.

MassiveU is honored to be a part of the type of high-potential, accelerated growth companies sought by T2 and its members, which include former executives of major national and global corporations. By supporting MassiveU’s Southwest Florida entrepreneurs, T2 is helping talented individuals grow education technology companies quickly and meet the needs of online learners today and in the future.

With the latest round of $330,000 in funds – plus an additional $370,000 from a complementary group of investors with an interest in education technology, as well as initial funding from the Tamiami Angel Fund I – T2, as lead investor, has raised more than $1.08 million for MassiveU.

“T2 sees MassiveU as a strong business entity that can make a real difference in terms of 21st century skills development for students,” said Don Kiernan, a Tamiami Angel Fund II member and MassiveU board member. “MassiveU is going to enhance the learning process in the country and worldwide.”

MassiveU was founded in 2012 by Angelo Biasi, a former New York University educator, and started generating revenue in April 2013. Today, MassiveU utilizes best-in-class technologies to support competency-based learning and 21st century skills.

T2 has been involved with MassiveU since the company’s early stages, working with Biasi from the development of his idea for a mobile-first learning solution to providing mentoring and funding.

Timothy Cartwright, chairman of T2, said, “MassiveU is the perfect combination of a passionate founder with a technology-enabled idea, an experienced management team with a previous exit, and a solution to a real problem inside a large marketplace.”

“Not only does the Tamiami Angel Fund’s investment support local entrepreneurs and job growth, it also supports the education of students in Southwest Florida and beyond,” said Biasi. “With the investment, the resources and the mentorship from T2 into MassiveU, we’re experiencing how early-stage investing can transform our Southwest Florida communities.”

The most recent funding enables MassiveU to create a full-time management team of five highly qualified individuals, including John Gamba, a new director of MassiveU and a Tamiami Angel Fund II member. Gamba has founded, funded and managed five internet companies in his 20-year career. Less than eight years after co-founding PACE – the Partnership for Academic and Community Excellence, a school-to-home telecommunications network that connected thousands of K-12 schools to millions of families in all 50 states – PACE was purchased by NTI Group Inc. and then sold to Blackboard Inc. for $182 million.

“MassiveU will also use the investment capital to further build out its technical platform to execute large opportunities with publishers and content providers in Latin America and other countries,” Biasi said.

For more information, visit www.massiveu.com.

Tamiami Angel Fund I & II LLC is a member-managed Florida Limited Liability Company designed to enable private accredited investors to actively participate in a disciplined investment process to fund promising early-stage through expansion-stage commercial ventures located in the U.S., with a preference to those in the state of Florida. The Fund is a member of the Angel Capital Association and the Florida Venture Forum. For more information, visit www.tamiamiangels.com.