West Chester University’s Dr. Edwin Cottrell Entrepreneurial Leadership Center has announced that the winner of its 2016 Annual Business Idea Competition, Elite Pureed Meals, won the Early Stage Fast Pitch Presentation last week at the Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic Angel Capital Expo.

Elite Pureed Meals, founded by Colleen McCloskey, a Newtown Square resident, is an early-stage company that prepares and packages pureed meals for persons with swallowing difficulties.

McCloskey is a client of SCORE Chester and Delaware County, and has benefited from its mentoring and other support services offered for early-stage businesses.

Elite Pureed Meals was initially selected as the winner of the 2016 Annual WCU Business Idea Competition. Included in that prize package was the opportunity to participate in the Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic Angel Capital Expo Early Stage Fast Pitch.

McCloskey’s company creates visually appealing, appetizing, tasty, and nutritious pureed meals. Her inspiration came from serving as a caregiver to a person with dysphagia.

“Colleen McCloskey’s Elite Pureed Meals has a bright future,” said Dr. Monica Zimmerman, Professor of Management and Director of the Cottrell Entrepreneurial Leadership Center at West Chester University. “The target market is large and virtually untapped.

“The Keiretsu Forum award is an endorsement of the great potential of the company. Ms. McCloskey’s passion to improve the quality of life of persons with swallowing difficulties plays an important role in the future of the company,”

The Dr. Edwin Cottrell Entrepreneurial Leadership Center at West Chester University promotes entrepreneurship across the school, in Chester County, and throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. The mission of the center is to enhance entrepreneurship literacy, to inspire students to engage in entrepreneurial ventures by exposing them first-hand to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial environments, and to foster economic development in the region by assisting startup firms as they move toward economic viability.

The Angel Expo is Keiretsu Forum’s signature event, bringing together investors and entrepreneurs looking for funding. The Keiretsu Forum is the world’s largest and most successful accredited investor-private equity community.

Since Keiretsu Forum’s founding in 2000, its members have invested more than $625 million in approximately 600 different companies from a myriad of industries, including software, telecommunications, health/life sciences, biotech, real estate, mobile applications, Internet, consumer products, and other high-growth areas.

Click here for more information on the Dr. Edwin Cottrell Entrepreneurial Leadership Center at West Chester University.

Click here for more information on the Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic.

Click here for more information on SCORE Chester and Delaware County.