By Brant Bond

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Five aspiring entrepreneurs competed Wednesday in the second 5 Across competition of 2014.

5 Across, an event hosted by Awesome Inc located in downtown Lexington, is a pitch competition which awards $500 to the winner for their venture and gives them a chance to compete in the 5 Across finals in December, where they could potentially win $5000 for their start-up.

The crowd at Awesome Inc heard a wide array of pitches, ranging from a day spa to help you relax to a form of online education where you are monitored through your webcam to make sure it is you who are taking your online exams and not someone else.

The winner Wednesday was Gary Darna and Jamie Rump with their pitch for their venture, Complete Set.

Darna transformed his infatuation with collecting Star Wars memorabilia into a money making business. Complete Set allows collectors, like Darna, to connect with other collectors via traditional buying sites like eBay, and Amazon.com as well as online message boards and other collector websites online.

“I thought their business model was the most likely to succeed,” said Eric Hauck, judge of the competition.  “I thought that the presentation was well thought through, they understood the market, they did have a revenue stream that they understood and at this stage it was the most complete.”

Hauck is the Chairman and President of Equinext LLC and a former entrepreneur in consumer electronics.

One entrepreneur competing Wednesday was a UK senior in mechanical engineering, Nathan Wright. Wright’s venture seeks to improve fuel dispensing in portable containers.

“My venture, basically, runs through the problems with the current fuel spouts in the market today and what we’ve done to address those problems and actually have all the solutions in one product,” Wright said.

Those problems are overflowing, leaking and in general they are difficult to use. Wright’s solution to these problems is the E.Z control fuel spout. Wright added a slider switch to his model which allows the user to control the flow rate, push it all the way forward and the fuel flows, pull it back some and you get less flow, pull it back until you hear a snap, and it stops the fuel. This eliminates the problems of overflowing and leaking found in current fuel spouts and is much easier to use.

“Since I was about nine years old, I’ve wanted to do research and development that’s actually what I’ve wanted to do for a very, very long time,” Wright said.

Wright, a native of Pikeville, Ky., founded Nimex Technologies in May of 2012 to do research and development for consumer products. His business has patented his E.Z control fuel spout and has patents on several other projects. Nimex Technologies is pursuing including a potential board game that takes a hot topic issue relevant today and explains it through game-play, making it relatable to anyone.

While Wright did not win the competition, he did say it was a valuable experience.

“I wanted to come here and build upon my expertise and my skill set,” Wright said. “I made some connections and learned some things, so that’s good. The good part is, I didn’t need the $500 to keep going.”

“But I wanted a big check,” Wright said.