Sweet Caroline! Last month, 10 startup teams converged on Boston’s storied Fenway Park to present their products at the The Grommet’s Product Pitch. The Grommet is a product launch platform and Indiegogo Partner. Their pitches were judged by a panel of Boston business leaders and venture capitalists, and THINX — a practically-minded and socially-conscious underwear company — won the competition.

With Indiegogo as the event’s Crowdfunding Partner, the finalists then took the Product Pitch competition to the real world by launching campaigns for each of their projects to see if the public would validate the judges initial call. Campaigns that launched competed to see which team could garner the most unique contributions between March 25th and April 22nd.

After a month of furious funding, THINX once again took home the grand prize with over 200 unique contributors over a 4 week period, followed by MAX’IS Creations with over 140. Meet our winners:

THINX

The social entrepreneurs behind THINX wanted to solve two problems at once when they approached the women’s underwear market. First, they wanted to design underwear that would be there for women every day of the month — rather than ignore basic biology like the rest of the lingerie industry. Second, they wanted to find a way to support feminine hygiene education and resources in Uganda. The synthesis of these focuses became THINX — specially designed underwear that help sponsor reusable hygiene pads in Uganda via AFRIpads.

Co-founder Miki Argawal said this about competing in The Grommet competition and running the resulting Indiegogo campaign:

Our overall experience with The Grommet Product Pitch Contest and the resulting Indiegogo Campaign has been tremendous for proof of concept. It is clear that this product deserves to exist and we can’t be more thrilled with the results thus far! But it’s just the beginning! Our goal is to help give every single girl in the developing world a fair shot at the best life possible and also solve a much needed problem for busy women like us here in the developed world! We are hoping that these next few days left in our campaign will give us even more ability to reach our ultimate goal!  We are excited to continue to share our mission through our launch on The Grommet website.

A big congratulations to the THINX team on their big wins and upcoming award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Good luck as you continue to launch your innovative brand!

MAXI’IS Creations ‘Mug With A Hoop!’TM

https://youtu.be/jUJF747Rn2A

8-year-old inventor and entrepreneur — yes you read that correctly — Max Ash has “lots of ideas [in his head],” but he brought his best yet to The Grommet Product Pitch competition. The “Mug With A Hoop” started as a concept that centered around hot chocolate and shooting baskets with marshmallows, but truth be told, it opens up an entire universe of opportunities to play with your food. Not only was his idea runner-up in the Indiegogo portion of the competition, but it also won The Grommet’s “social winner,” receiving the most votes on Facebook.

Max’s Indiegogo campaign is looking to raise initial costs of putting his mug into production as well as to support dyslexia research. We heard from he and his parents:

It has been an AMAZING experience and whirlwind few weeks for 8-year-old Max since becoming a Finalist in The Grommet Product Pitch Contest and having his patent pending “Mug With A Hoop”™ featured on Indiegogo. In addition to generating interest and presales for his product, Max has already raised over $800 for dyslexia research.  Everyone from corporate CEO’s to basketball legends like Bill Walton and Sam Jones have praised Max for his ingenious idea and his entrepreneurial spirit.  The Grommet team has gone out of their way to support Max’s new venture and the folks at Indiegogo have offered wonderful guidance in launching a successful campaign.  

We have begun pre-production of the ceramic mugs and we are exploring U.S. based plastics manufacturers and additional licensing partners in the food, beverage and sports industries. Down the line Max hopes to have mugs for all of your favorite sports!

Good luck to Max and MAX’IS Creations!

Find out more about The Grommet and their affiliated campaigns by checking out their Partner Page!