Dozen concept cos. to compete for Venture Conference slots

Distillation. A common word in Central Oregon. But no, we’re not talking about a brewing competition, but an entrepreneurial competition. Although there will be some beer consumed at PubTalk!

EDCO has selected the top 12 companies that will compete at the September 26th PubTalk. That’s after reviewing 28 concept stage companies and nearly thirty hours of review with an expert panel of 10 individuals.

PubTalk event is a critical point on the path to the Bend Venture Conference (BVC), held on October 18th. After the 12 semifinalists present, each PubTalk attendee ranks the companies and five are selected to go to BVC.

“This is the best group of concept companies we have seen so far,” said Nate LiaBraaten, EDCO Business Development Manager, who managed the evaluation process. “With so many great early stage companies, we had to make tough choices. Our experts—representing every area from finance to venture capital to marketing—were critical in distilling the field to twelve contenders.”

The 12 concept contenders are a diverse set, ranging from companies in technology to food manufacturing to energy development. In alphabetical order, they are:

Axis Mundi seeks to manufacture collapsible, durable, expandable, insulated, safe structures to meet the growing need for temporary housing.

Coco’s Haven makes all natural, organic coconut oil skin and lip care products that leverage the intense popularity of unrefined coconut oil.

Cortex provides intelligent e-commerce solutions and advanced business analytics software on an integrated platform that gets results fast.

Freedom Energy manufactures solar concentration device to generate focused temps over 2000F creating steam- turbine electrical power, disrupting existing technology.

Intraoral Technologies makes appetite suppression, weight loss, smoking cessation and other applications using oral acupressure.

Intuitive Touch Technologies develops full hand touch sensing technologies for intuitive, no-thought, enhanced-experience consumer products.

KAVB Farms develops equine gear to save the legs and lives of equine athletes.

Ochoco Arms patented multi laser sighting system increases target acquisition abilities and turns a shotgun into a precision instrument.

OnBoard Dynamics technology permits a vehicle owner to refuel at a home or business with natural gas costing less than $2.00 per gallon.

OSU-Cascades (concept to be selected from Entrepreneurship class)

Red Plate Foods makes delicious, gluten free, allergy friendly desserts that taste as good as traditional desserts.

TurboPup allows dog owners to travel light with complete meal bars for active dogs.

PubTalk will be held at McMenamins in downtown Bend, with networking starting at 5:00 pm and the program kicking off at 5:45 pm. The evening features rapid fire presentations followed by tight Q&A from attendees. The audience votes for the final five startups that will vie on October 18th at BVC for the $10,000 cash award from BendBroadband. Those interested in attending should register soon, as only fifteen seats remain.

“A key objective for BVC is to provide all companies with useful feedback,” added LiaBraaten. “Every company gets feedback in their pitch session and that’s followed by comments and suggestions from the panel. Additionally, we help each presenter refine their model and pitch