Finding the Next Moshe Weiss

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Moshe Weiss, the teacher-turned-entrepreneur from Minnesota, was the first frum Jew to appear on ABC’s Shark Tank business reality show.

The $54,000 he walked away with for his invention, the SoundBender amplifier for the iPad, sparked the imagination of many in the world of small business.

But the road to successfully securing a substantial investment or scoring a partnership with a savvy businessman isn’t easy.

“So many small business owners need to expand, but are lost and don’t know where to turn for the resources and money to get where they need to go,” says Meny Hoffman, CEO of Ptex Group, an award-winning marketing and business services agency in Brooklyn, NY.

To make those connections possible, Hoffman created LTB 2013, the North American Jewish community’s first-ever business conference to take place on Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at the Dyker Beach Golf Course in Brooklyn, NY.

The full-day summit will feature one-on-one networking opportunities, interactive sessions and a CEO round-table discussion on topics like leadership, challenges, sales, marketing and social media.

TV-LIKE SHOW

But the crowning moment will be The Launch Pad, a live competition modeled after the popular Shark Tank TV series, where a panel of wealthy investors hear business pitches and are offered a stake in the business.

The names of the investors have not been made public yet, but Hoffman told COLlive.com that there will be 6 of them and the minimum investment will be $100,000.

“They could invest even more, depending on the needs of the business, and in that case, they will probably be asking for more than 10% ownership in the company,” he says.

And while the back-and-forth negotiations on stage are sure to be a spectacle for conference participants, many of whom don’t watch television, Hoffman specifies that “we are not doing it simply for entertainment purposes. There’s more that we want to accomplish with this.

“This project will help those in the audience learn how to properly prepare to pitch to an investor. They will learn how to present their ideas, and to the right people,” he explains. “And we are hoping this will open the conversation between all attending business owners and potential investors – not only the winners.”

Hoffman says that an important lesson participants will take away from it is how to take investors for the proportionate amount.

“Sometimes people are so desperate for cash, they give away too much. If $100,000 only helps your company a little bit, you should not give a large portion of your business away to an investor for it,” he says.

BEST-SELLING SPEAKERS

The underlying acronym of LTB 2013 is “Let’s Talk Business” – and that’s what the organizers say will be happening at the conference, created in collaboration with Kosherfest founder Menachem Lubinsky and inspirational orator Charlie Harary, Esq.

It will tout a lineup of keynote speakers including New York Times-bestselling business author Gary Vaynerchuk and the internationally-recognized “Authority on Approachability” Scott Ginsberg.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity for both employers and employees looking to get out-of-the-box and into-the-mode,” says Lubinsky about the array of business concepts and proven industry strategies to be presented.

“Rarely is the Jewish business community given the opportunity to network and be educated by such a high-level roster of speakers at a professionally organized conference,” he adds.

Fidelity Payment Services, one of the largest electronic payment providers in North America, has partnered as the Title Sponsor of the conference.

Another major sponsor is the Brooklyn Financial Group, a recognized leader in financial services and insurance products, who is sponsoring the Launch Pad segment of the program.

Admission for LTB 2013 is being limited to only 500 attendees; between sponsor-reserved passes and pre-sale registrants, nearly half of the available registration passes have already been reserved, organizers said.

To register for the conference or submit an idea for the Launch Pad, call 718-513-2222 or visit ltbsummit.com.