Glendale Tech Week Ends in Pitchfest

Winners of Pitchfest — a “Shark Tank”-style startup event in which entrepreneurs present their ideas in front of a live audience and a panel of judges — were announced Sept. 20 at a party and awards ceremony held at the Americana at Brand in downtown Glendale. Nearly 500 people attended “Next in Tech,” the culminating event of Glendale Tech Week. Albert Stepanyan, founder of threat detection company Scylla, was awarded the Pitchfest’s Grand Prize. Before moving to Glendale, Stepanyan spent seven years in Germany, where he founded artificial intelligence company Develandoo. Other award winners included ServiceTitan Inc. (Best Culture), DishDivvy (Community Impact), DeepRoot Green Infrastructure (Cutting Edge Technology) and Isabella Bruyere (Rising Star). The Glendale Young Entrepreneur category went to Austin Steed of PickTrace; Harrison Steed of PickTrace; and William Lee of Abrupt Collective. Online legal platform Appear Me won Fan Favorite. Pitchfest was a component of the city of Glendale’s annual Tech Week. Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian presided over the awards ceremony. Jennifer McLain Hiramoto, deputy director of Community Development – Economic Development for the city, organized the event. James Citron, chief executive of Venice-based business platform Pledgeling, delivered the keynote speech. Accepting the Grand Prize, Stepanyan said, “This is a great opportunity for the whole Scylla team. I look forward to working with you all.” Comprising Pitchfest’s finalists: Alexis Schomer, founder of Expy Health; Benjamin Trammell of Tooth Fairy Stem Cell; Khalil Jammal of CareWell; Ara Keshishian of Pinpointeyes; Hovanes Margarian at AppearMe; Luis Oda of Tagalong; Benjamin Benichou of Creative Bot Inc.; and Stepanyan with Scylla. The companies represented a wide breadth conceptually. With Tooth Fairy Stem Cell, Trammell, of Lancaster, seeks to create a firm that divines biomaterial needed for stem cell research from children’s first teeth instead of the traditional umbilical cord, which Trammell described as an iffy, expensive one-shot as opposed to 20 opportunities afforded by kids’ fallen teeth. “Ninety-five percent of dentists don’t know that stem cells are inside the teeth,” said Trammell, who believes such work will become a new revenue stream for the dental industry. With Pinponteyes, Glendale-based Keshishian found inspiration in his own son’s plight to devise a solution for the eye condition strabismus, commonly known as “lazy eye.” Trammell noted that, whether he won or lost, the competition served as good exposure for his startup idea, which he will continue to pursue either way. “This was a good practice for me,” said Trammell of only his second pitch outing. The finalists had pitched their ideas within the CBRE Group Inc. building on South Brand Boulevard, and the evening’s awards represented the climax of Pitchfest. The Pitchfest Committee and judges included Alex Bruno of Bruno Group Inc., Ana Quintana of Black Diamond Ventures, Ani Torosyan of DishDivvy, Ara Aslanian of Inverselogic, Armen Vartanian of Oceanview Capital Partners Inc. and Stepan Khzrtian of LegalLab. Finalists were in competition to win the 2019 Grand Prize, a $40,000 suite of essential professional services for startups donated by various Glendale businesses. “I own a business in Glendale, and it’s in my best interest to see the business community grow in Glendale,” said Inverselogic’s Aslanian, who served as the Pitchfest chair.