{"id":315817,"date":"2026-10-28T04:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/315817\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T04:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:38:08","slug":"lake-erie-launchpad-emerging-erie-entrepreneurs-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/315817\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Erie Launchpad\u200b: Emerging Erie Entrepreneurs | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Six local entrepreneurs took the stage in Erie to pitch their businesses to a panel of investors, each hoping to turn a big idea into a successful business.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Six local entrepreneurs took the stage in Erie to pitch their businesses to a panel of investors, each hoping to turn a big idea into a successful business.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>Among the presenters was Jim Foote, CEO of First Ascent Biomedical, an Erie-based biotechnology company focused on developing personalized cancer treatments. Foote shared his vision for the company\u2019s future, making the case for its potential and seeking investor support.<\/p>\n<p>Following each entrepreneur\u2019s eight-minute pitch, investors had the opportunity to express interest in the businesses and explore potential partnerships.<\/p>\n<p>The event, inspired by the hit reality TV show Shark Tank, brought together six entrepreneurs and eight investors, including Lilly Broadcasting.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke with Brian Slawin of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, who helped bring the event to life.<\/p>\n<p>While no money changed hands during the event, follow-up meetings between entrepreneurs and interested investors are expected to take place, potentially opening the door to new opportunities for Erie\u2019s growing business community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six local entrepreneurs took the stage in Erie to pitch their businesses to a panel of investors, each&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[25706,128805,52779,136,138,137,116626,3777,128807,46716,128806],"class_list":["post-315817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-biotechnology","tag-business-pitch","tag-entrepreneur","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-first-ascent-biomedical","tag-investor","tag-personalized-cancer-treatment","tag-shark-tank","tag-start-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}