As we’ve been doing a bit of pitching practice for an event tomorrow, I could help but realize how crazy the past week has been and felt a quick GearFreedom recap was in order.

• Finished Second in the Paul J. Holloway Competition
• Decided to hire an intern this summer to help with the planned summer launch

We’ve been finalizing our presentation for tomorrow night’s NH Start Up Challenge pitch, and the more people we’ve talked to, the more people who have acknowledged that we’re on to something big.

Big sporting goods chains – You go to them for all your sporting needs, but you’ve probably never thought of them as a rental option. The fact is, that many of the national chains rent gear as well. They just haven’t spent time and energy marketing this fact until GearFreedom came around and offers scalable solution. These stores are all looking at ways to drive more foot traffic to their stores. It’s been a very busy few days talking to the a few chains, and getting to the right contacts. They all LOVE the idea of GearFreedom, and can’t wait for GearFreedom to be up and running.

Small local shops – You go to them because you trust that they have YOUR best interest in mind. We’ve been talking to many local New Hampshire shops and many are interested in working with GearFreedom to help manage their inventory as well as drive the foot traffic to their shops.

We’d love to hear what you think of the GearFreedom concept! Post your thoughts of our FaceBook page!

Wish us luck at The Pitch tomorrow!

We’re excited to announce we’re looking for our first web development intern for the summer.  Take a read and let us know if you or you know of any potential candidates!

About GearFreedom

GearFreedom is a gym membership for the outdoors: the expensive purchase and unfeasible storage of gear is no longer required for year-round outdoor enjoyment. Read more about us here: gearfreedom.com/blog

Overview

Will develop and implement customer facing web application enhancements. The successful candidate will have an opportunity to help with the design, architecture, and launch of a company breaking into the sports rental/travel market.

Requirements

An understanding of web technologies is necessary with experience utilizing HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL for web applications. Candidates with Linux experience or pursuing a degree in MIS, CS, or other computer related field will be preferred.

This position will gain the candidate valuable experience in web application development in a fast-paced ecommerce environment. They will be able to participate in the full software development life-cycle, learning what it takes to launch a new feature, or application into a production environment.

To submit your resume for this job, email us here at resume@gearfreedom.com

So, we ended April with some killer news. I figured I’d keep the vibe going into May.  Plus since it’s Mother’s day weekend, looking to make Mom as proud as possible!

Holloway Competition Results

GearFreedom had been selected as one of six finalists in the Paul J. Holloway Prize Innovation-to-Market Competition. This past week we took 2nd place over all! With the prize that we won, we’ll be looking to add a summer intern to help us with our launch. We’ll be posting the job soon. If you’re interested in helping us out email mikev@gearfreedom.com! Read more about the results here.

Next up…  MYPN NH Startup Challenge

GearFreedom entered the 2012 NH Start Up Challenge last month and was selected as one of 8 semi-finalists! As with the Holloway competition, we are extremely proud and humbled to be mentioned in the same breath as our competition. Come check out the pitch in Manchester on May 17th.

Please remember to continue to help us launch by signing up at signup.gearfreedom.com!

Well folks, we have some great news!

In lieu of not having a marketing department, I figured I’d put up another blog post.

Poster Competition Winner

GearFreedom entered the Charles & Miriam Nelson Poster Competition where we were challenged to generate a buzz about our business concept through a stand alone poster with only a short verbal explanation of the concept.  We were selected as one of the winners.  Congratulations to our fellow winners:  SOSponsored, WakUp Inc, Artic Box, EZCao, and Sensible Spreader.

Learn more here: http://www.wsbe.unh.edu/charles-miriam-nelson-poster-competition

Paul J. Holloway Competition Finalist

GearFreedom also entered the Paul J. Holloway Prize Innovation-to-Market Competition and has been selected as one of six finalists!  We are extremely excited to be recognized as a finalist, and honored to have the opportunity to have our business plan scrutinized by willing and able entrepreneurs who have walked the walk in the past.   This won’t be any easy task as we’re up against some other great competition.    The winner will be selected May 9^th.  Best of luck to everyone!

Learn more here: http://wsbe.unh.edu/paul-j-holloway-innovation-market-prize

We’re happy to release our GearFreedom video providing a great overview of the vision of where we’re going with GearFreedom.  Take a look and be sure to signup at signup.GearFreedom.com!