Milwaukee-based Deeplight Systems Inc. earned the $10,000 cash prize on Saturday’s episode of “Project Pitch It” on WISN-TV Channel 12.
Deeplight Systems is a cybersecurity provider. Chief executive officer Sam Aten pitched the company’s DeepScout platform, which identifies vulnerabilities in a company’s Internet of Things.
“How many of you here today use wireless internet? Right, all of you,” Aten said to the successful area business moguls who listen to pitches on the show. “Hackers are able to target devices such as wireless printers, security cameras and even televisions.”
DeepScout can automatically and proactively prevent security breaches to keep business information safe, he said.
“Now one thing that I’ll tell you that we’ve realized along our journey is that the thing that separates good guys from bad guys are choices. We all use the same exact tools,” Aten said.
“Well, you have to think like the bad guy in order to fight back” said David Gruber, one of the moguls.
Aten said Deeplight charges businesses a monthly fee, but doesn’t use contracts.
“Why is there no contract?” asked Jerry Jendusa, another mogul.
“We find that in these conversations, people hate contractual cybersecurity,” Aten said. “It’s like, ‘If you’re not really solving anything, why am I paying you six grand a year?’”
The other entrepreneurs who appeared on Saturday’s episode of “Project Pitch It” were Ed Swanson, inventor of Marinette-based Ready Eddy’s.
Swanson’s company makes frozen sandwiches sold at grocery and convenience stores with a dough he developed by accident at home. And he’s also marketed them to the military and hospitals for cafeteria lines.
“My biggest challenge to date has been not having enough capital to get the brand awareness,” Swanson said.
The moguls were concerned Swanson was going after too many markets and needed to focus his brand.
“Sounds like the product is far ahead of the process,” said Deb Allen, another mogul.
The moguls awarded the Stritch Pitch Award to Ready Eddy’s, which includes business classes, office space, mentorship and staff support from Cardinal Stritch University.
Also presenting was Gaurav Mishra, founder and CEO of Middleton-based Rowheels Inc.
According to Mishra, about 70 percent of U.S. wheelchair users get upper body injuries because of the motion involved in propelling a wheelchair forward.
“The good news is that Rowheels has developed a patented technology with its pulling and rowing motion that not only overcomes this significant medical problem, but it also helps the user to strengthen their upper body,” he said.
Mishra is now selling the Rowheels wheelchairs on the company’s website, and also has plans to develop it into a marketplace, a “mini-Amazon of medical devices.”
The moguls said it wasn’t clear whether Rowheels was focused on the wheelchair product or the website.
“I think it’s a noble idea to try to get direct to the consumer, because there’s certainly a need for that,” Gruber said.
Rowheels won the Pitch In Award, in which the moguls will host a forum of investors and experts in marketing, finance and networking on behalf of the company.
