It’s hard to believe that this is the 12th year of The Todd Feldman ’89 and Family Pitch contest. Back in the fall of 2011, President Mark Gearan began the academic year with the theme, “The Power of an Idea.” At the Centennial Center, we took up this challenge and decided to create a program that would allow students to explore and implement their ideas. We felt this was the perfect opportunity to introduce the Colleges’ first student entrepreneurial leadership contest.
Twelve years later, the contest embodies the Centennial Center’s values. As we work with student entrepreneurs, we consistently find that to further an idea it requires leadership qualities, entrepreneurial spirit and innovative strategies. By engaging in the various programs at HWS, our finalists identify a problem and set out to identify a viable business that positively impacts the community around them.
Tonight, we celebrate four finalists who will be added to this lively HWS tradition of sharing ideas, comparing concepts and readying student entrepreneurs for real world enterprising. Their efforts are supported by the extraordinary network of HWS faculty, staff, selection committee members, alum mentors and Pitch judges. We’d like to thank the HWS community for a wonderful 12 years and congratulate all those students who have been courageous enough to put forward an idea.
Sincerely,
Susan Pliner Associate Provost & Interim Director of the Centennial Center
Pitch Sponsor
Todd Feldman has been a successful entrepreneur across multiple industries, including garment and soft goods, entertainment and real estate. A graduate of Hobart and William Smith ’89 (BA Economics), Todd has developed a keen eye for packaging ideas and building businesses for nearly 30 years.
Having started in the manufacturing world, Todd quickly became a top salesperson in a multi-national public corporation, which served him well in his transition into the entertainment business. Todd has produced a feature film and packaged and set up many television shows at major networks and continues to produce and represent established writers and directors in a variety of mediums.
In 2008, Todd and his wife, Jenn, created and patented a revolutionary throw blanket, the Nuddle Blanket, which, at the time, was the only blanket with a foot pocket. The Nuddle Blanket became a favorite of many, including several well-known celebrities and influencers, and can be found on couches around the world.
In 2009, Todd was presented with an opportunity to invest in several real estate deals of a prominent developer of hotel and residential properties, during which time he met an executive who would later become a business partner. In 2011, Todd and this executive co-founded Leonardo247, a real estate software platform, which brings real estate, management and technology together in a ground-breaking new way. Leonardo247 has since grown to become a leader in the multi-family industry.
Todd’s entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well, recently co-founding another company in the technology/social media space (too early to announce) and having invested alongside über investor, Tim Draper, in PORTL, a California-based Holo-portation start-up, as well as ROLLA, a NYC-based real estate video platform—on which he serves on their Advisory Boards.
Todd and his family are thrilled to be involved in HWS’ 11th Pitch Contest and are looking forward to many years of supporting the young HWS entrepreneurs.
Pitch Judges
Deborah Hauser ’83, P’22, P’24
Executive, Residential Real Estate
Deborah Hauser is a c-suite executive in residential real estate, with over 20 years' experience in sales, marketing, coaching, mentoring and management. Deborah was affiliated with one of the largest Sotheby’s International Realty affiliates on Long Island as COO for several years before moving to Boston. In Boston, Deborah acted as the principal broker for an independent start up, growing to over 100 agents in under 2 years while establishing the Senné Company as a leader in luxury real estate in the Greater Boston area. Today, Deborah is consulting within the real estate tech industry and enjoys spending time with her family on the Cape. Her son is a ‘22 graduate of Hobart College and daughter is a current junior at the Colleges.
Charles S. Brind ’84, P’22
Principal, Westwood Benefit Strategies
Charlie Brind, a native of Geneva, NY, graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and completed his Master of Business Administration in Finance and Marketing from the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in 1987. He is President of Westwood Benefits, Inc., a disability benefits consulting firm he founded in 1999 after creating the now industry-standard supplemental disability benefits program used by many Fortune 1000 corporations today. Prior to establishing his own firm, Mr. Brind was one of the leading life insurance product analysts nationally, creating estate plans and funding solutions for the industry’s leading producers designed for many of the country’s wealthiest families.
While at HWS, Charlie was a member of the Hobart golf team and the Hobart swim team. Charlie is married to Nancy Davison Brind, HWS '83, and has two daughters, Kate (Cornell 2019) Alexandra (HWS 2022). He splits his time between his home in Westwood, MA and his second home on the east side of Seneca Lake. Charlie thoroughly enjoys competing in triathlons, lacrosse, basketball, fishing and golf.
Rafe Mattingly ’08
Senior Solutions Consultant, TiER1 Performance
Rafe Mattingly is a Senior Solutions Consultant at TiER1 Performance. Rafe partners closely with clients in technology, retail, financial services, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing to help them operationalize their strategic priorities around systems adoption, talent & leadership development, change management, communications, and organizational effectiveness. Rafe’s professional experiences include lacrosse coach, project leader, executive coach, director of business development, management consultant, and several years as an admissions counselor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
An entrepreneur at heart. Rafe is also the founder of Class IV Coffee Company, which brings single origin, Fairtrade, organic coffees to customers across North America.
Rafe’s volunteers time on the boards of the Greater Boston Chapter of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and the Hobart College Statesmen Athletic Association (SAA).
Jason Magna ’95, P’27
Founder and President, Riverside Partners
Jason Magna is Hobart ‘95 graduate with a degree in English. He went on to attend St. John’s University where he earned a J.D. in 2000. He is also founder and president of Riverside Partners in Hawthorne, NJ; a full-service digital marketing company offering insight, knowledge, and a dynamic and talented creative team helps clients leverage all new multimedia platforms.
Finger Lakes Flame Finger Lakes Flame creates gourmet, limited-production hot sauces incorporating local Finger Lakes produce and global ingredients to capture the unique flavors of international cuisine.
Zaheer Bowen ’23
Major: Political Science Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
The Nite Cap The Nite Cap is a new “cloud” kitchen restaurant model that utilizes existing commercial spaces for unique late-night dining availability.
Hagen Morris ’23
Major: Psychology Hometown: Old Forge, NY
BLU BLU is a transportation service specifically designed for individuals in remote towns and locations where larger hailing services and taxis do not exist.
Connor Quinn ’23
Major: Economics Hometown: Sewickley, PA
Water Watts Water Watts uses running water and simple turbines inside pipes to generate energy to be rerouted to storage batteries for future use.
Pitch Semi-Finalists
Isabel Lunken ’23
Jackson Mischler ’24
Brooke Prochniak ’25
Calix Boldt ’25
Jake Wright ’23
Tiffany Foster ’24
Mohammad Yassin ’25
Jonathan Garcia ’23
Pitch Mentors
Brian Aspland '98
Joanne and Scott Bolonda P'26
Bob Buonato '86
Jim Cecere ‘91
Jeff Eaton '83
Gary Eidlin GP'26
Ian Leopold '86
Kevin McAllister '88
Mary Kate Bates Miranowski '09
Jeff Vukelic '88
Michael ’59 and Ellen ’60 Opell IdeaLab
The Michael ’59 and Ellen ’60 Opell IdeaLab has served as an effective feeder program into The Pitch contest. It also acted as an idea accelerator. A student investment committee in coordination with the Centennial Center reviews student proposals and allocates $5,000 in seed funding to various ideas.
