Kent Company Gets $100,000 Investment

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Tuesday, June 05, 2007 | By: Mike Urban, Seattle P-I

Wine, money and fresh business ideas were flowing Monday at the first Zino Zillionaire Investment Forum.

  
   MIKE URBAN / P-I 
Cathi Hatch of The Zino Society congratulates Novinium CEO Glen Bertini on winning the top prize at a forum Monday at Seattle's Fairmont Olympic Hotel.
The event, which drew more than 250 people to The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle, packed a lot into nine hours.

Twenty-eight companies presented business plans in an effort to capture a $100,000 top prize, with each entrepreneur allotted just five minutes for an initial presentations. That's not a lot of time, and a few of the entrepreneurs resorted to unusual gimmicks to grab attention.

Perlego Systems Chief Executive Todd Ostrander started his presentation by dropping a cell phone into a glass of Diet Coke, saying that his company's technology backs up information for those times when a mobile phone is lost or damaged. Matthew Moore and Matt Duncan of Wingman Mobile performed a short skit about poor customer service, and RIPL founder Bill Messing put together a top five list of reasons to invest in his Seattle social networking company.