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Online Art Marketplace Wins October Hatching Event In East Lansing

EAST LANSING (WWJ) -- The winner of last week's East Lansing pitch competition, called The Hatching, was Folyo, an "Etsy"-like marketplace for the online sale of artwork.

An all-female team made up of Michigan State University students, Folyo has been garnering support having taken home the top award at the most recent Lansing Startup Weekend.

The Hatching is a partnership of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, the Lansing area's economic development agency; the New Economic Opportunity Center, a Lansing business incubator; and Spartan Innovations, a limited-profit corporation founded by Michigan State University to support commercialization of MSU-developed technology.

Held the last week of the month, The Hatching allows entrepreneurs to pitch new ideas to judges and an audience of innovators in a spirited atmosphere. The winner receives $1,000 for startup costs as well as legal services to create the new business entity provided by Loomis, Ewert, Parsley, Davis & Gotting P.C. This month's prize sponsorship came from MITN, Michigan Creative and Signing Savvy.

Additionally, each month the winner will advance to the next round of pitches that will take place at the Launched: Celebration of Entrepreneurship event in December for the chance to win $10,000.

Jeff Smith, co-director of the New Economy Division at LEAP, said of the level of innovation of The Hatching: "Each of the presenters this month could have won The Hatching over past months. Each of the 20 or so ideas we have seen this year has been tremendously strong and this event has allowed all walks of life to be creative."

"We have held this event five times so far this year and every month we are drawing more and more people to attend as well as submit ideas to pitch," added Bob Trezise, president and CEO of LEAP. "The Hatching is definitely the place to be the last Wednesday of each month. See you next month!"

People interested in participating and pitching in the upcoming events are asked to submit their ideas to www.thehatching.org. Submissions are being accepted for the next Hatching event which will take place at Beggar's Banquet in East Lansing on Tuesday, November 26th and will continue every last Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m. For the next round, the submission period will close on Friday, Nov. 22.

More at www.purelansing.com.

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