MBA student, entrepreneur excels at ‘elevator pitch’ competition

Clark University graduate student Brad McNamara won second place at the Princeton Entrepreneurship Pitch Contest in Boston on Nov. 17, presenting an “elevator pitch” about his new business model aimed at meeting the growing demand for environmentally friendly, locally grown produce. McNamara, who is pursuing his MBA in social change and a master’s degree in environmental science and policy at Clark, presented a 90-second pitch followed by five minutes of Q&A by a panel of judges — all in front of  an audience of more than 40 professionals, VC’s, Princeton alumni, and others. “The contest was really fun, stressful and rewarding,” said McNamara, who directs operations at New England Clean Energy Council and is the founder of United Hydroponics, Inc., and founder and vice  president of New Business Strategy/Product Innovation at Freight Farms. The product McNamara is launching – and pitching — entails a “Kickstarter” campaign to create local fresh food that is accessible to Main South (Worcester) residents and other distressed city neighborhoods, while boosting the local economy and empowering each community to provide for itself. To learn more, click here. This was McNamara’s third entrepreneurship contest in recent months. In October, he made it to the semi-finals of the WPI Venture Forum Business Contest and finished in the Top 5 of the Wal-Mart Better Living Contest held at the Net Impact Conference in Portland, OR. On Nov. 22, McNamara presented his ideas to a team of business development engineers at IHS CERA, an energy research firm in Cambridge. Following his work toward an environmentally sustainable world, McNamara also is experimenting with a “car-free” lifestyle, and maintains a blog at www.carfreebrad.com.