Recipe website idea takes first place at Wichita entrepreneurship competition

A website that incorporates whatever ingredients someone might have in their kitchen took first place during the recent Startup Weekend Wichita entrepreneurial competition in Old Town.

Pandandy — a website created by Mark Earnest, Tanner Giffin, Jason Newman and Tad Williams — was voted the best idea by a panel of judges during the 54-hour event at the Labor Party, which showcased start-up business ideas. Pandandy offers recipes that include only items that a cook has in his or her home.

“I was amazed by what I saw,” said Mark Torline of the Wichita State University Center for Entrepreneurship and a judge for the event. “I thought the teams did a remarkable job of not only coming up with a product idea but also, in some cases, providing a prototype and customer validation.”

The weekend event, which occurs twice per year, began in 2013 and featured 46 participants comprising seven different teams, according to a news release. The event started Friday and went until Sunday evening. The other top finishers are:

▪ Second place: Toasted, a British-themed drinking board game created by Adrian Fox, Jason Martin, Carlos Palomino, Cody Saunders and Gina Stevenson.

▪ Third place: BrightWeb, a social media network for people with intellectual disabilities created by Emily Behlmann and Harsh Oza.

▪ Community Choice Award: Cypher, a modular eye-wear manufacturer that allows customers to mix and match pieces, colors and styles; creators included Pedro Figueroa, Dominic Greene, John Ho, Kenny Ma, Truc Quach, Monserrat Rios and Jaime Segura.

In addition to Torline, the other judges for the competition were Wichita City Council member Bryan Frye and Chicken Poop creator and CEO Jamie Tabor, according to the release.

The creators of Pandandy will now get a chance to put their product in front of potential investors as part of the Global Startup Battle.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Recipe website idea takes first place at Wichita entrepreneurship competition."