North Fork Entrepreneur Takes Home $20K Top Prize In Competition

MATTITUCK, NY — A local entrepreneur showcased his business and emerged a first-place winner recently: Jon Demopoulos took home a $20,000 top prize for his Wick & Wine Candle Co. in a "'Shark Tank'- inspired" start-up pitch competition sponsored by I-hamptons recently.

I-hampons invited entrepreneurs to participate in the "Riptide [Hamptons] '$ink or $wim'" standing-room only event, which was held at the Southampton Arts Center on Nov. 10.

Southampton Mayor Michael Irving was the guest of honor; the participating audience voted for the second place winner PedalShare, Southampton's first bike share app, which won $10,000.

The contest included 20 local entrepreneurs who submitted new business ideas that were presented in videos on the i-hamptons website; the videos generated more than 3,000 online votes in the three-week period before the event. The three other finalist start-ups were Culiraw, with vegan deserts, Sweet Vineyards, with wine-infused biscotti, and SproutBox, with living foods at home.

“What a cool event. Seeing the passion and innovation of all the inventors and entrepreneurs out in Eastern Long Island. So much creativity and a real spirit of community,” said Sokolow. “I wanted them all to be incubated. I love start-ups. I love passion. I love i-hamptons.”

Ashley John Heather, founder of i-hamptons., was joined by Anthony Cafaro, local morning radio DJ on WEHM to MC the Riptide event. “In coming back for our second year, we have seen a growing interest from local innovators and start-ups to join this platform to help accelerate their growth," he said, adding that the "Riptide event demonstrated that the East End is alive with entrepreneurial spirit and we look forward to seeing the community continue to grow in the coming few years.

"If you have a start-up business and are based on the East End, then RipTide is an event you don't want to miss. Based on the popular 'Shark Tank' format, stand out businesses will be selected to present their ideas to a panel of successful entrepreneurs, local celebrities and leading academia," I-hamptons said.

According to its Facebook page: "i-hamptons is the hub of entrepreneurs in the Hamptons. Bringing together all the resources needed to launch and build an innovative company."

Demopoulos, who lives in Mattituck, said he was one of 12 semi-finalists; after an online vote, he was one of five finalists to give a presentation, or "pitch," to the audiences and judges on Nov. 10. Judges, he said, included Alec Sokolow, who has worked on "Toy Story" and many other films; Sokolow was joined by the other Riptide panelists, Barbara Roberts, Entrepreneur in Residence, Columbia Business School, Saagar Kulkarni, an investor at a New York venture capital firm and Danielle Candela, CEO of Tote Taxi and last year’s Riptide winner.

Demopoulos, who won $20,000, was thrilled to take home a top award. "It felt absolutely amazing to actually win this whole thing, not just because the funding is huge for growth, but the contacts and the mentorship I'm being offered are invaluable," he said.

Demopoulos company, Wick & Wine Candle Co., is a dream realized. At his business, located on Wickham Ave. in Mattituck, he creates "recycled wine bottle candles made with 100% all-natural soy wax, poured in small batches."

The vision, he said, was to combine a love for recycling and natural products with the "vast Island wine culture to come up with an idea that can be enjoyed by anyone who loves candle and/or wine . . . which, we believe, covers just about everybody. We source wine bottles from local wineries and restaurants and, through our own process, transform them into candle vessels that can be used again and again long after the wax is gone."

With the repurposed wine bottle candle, individuals can first enjoy the functionality of the bottle top converting to a useable wineglass as they sip by candlelight, he said.

"After the wax is gone, you simply wipe the vessel clean and both top and bottom pieces can be used as a sub-irrigated, or self-watering, planter that you can use to grow, or transplant, herbs to keep in the kitchen for fresh ingredients when cooking meals. Consider this the ultimate gift whether its Christmas, Valentine's Day, or even your wedding favors," he said.

Demopoulos also won $10,000 in radio ads, mentoring and various memberships. He plans to use the $20,000 to stock inventory and hire two to three employees. "We're hiring," he said.

When asked what he would tell other young people, just starting out with a dream, his answer was heartfelt. "If you have a passion or even just an idea, you're wasting time and opportunity if you're not acting on it. If you can take a chance on the lottery and tell yourself, 'Hey, you never know,' then you can take a chance on yourself, too — I bet your odds are better," he said. "Just do something crazy. If you're going after your dreams passionately, that, in itself, is a success."

Photo courtesy Jon Demopoulos and I-hamptons.