Twelve Bold Founders, Three New Champions: Inside the Most Competitive Start Peninsula Finale Ever

Start Peninsula’s 2025 Micro Pitch season concluded with an intensity unlike anything the program has seen in more than a decade. Twelve early-stage companies — each bringing a sharply defined vision and real traction — stepped into the Grand Finale with the same goal: to claim one of three championship titles and secure $5,000 to advance their venture.

What unfolded was the closest finish in Start Peninsula history. Judges debated longer than ever before, weighing a field where every single company had a legitimate shot at the crown. It wasn’t just a pitch night. It was a showcase of how far Hampton Roads entrepreneurship has come.

In the end, three founders emerged as the 2025 Start Peninsula Champions — Haus of Vibes DIY, TRO Energy Solutions, Inc., and Where2Wheel — but the night itself belonged to all twelve finalists whose innovation and grit made the decision so difficult.

Below is a full look at this remarkable group. Catch the Full Replay here.

Meet the 2025 Champions

Haus of Vibes DIY

Haus of Vibes DIY is a modern, hands-on creativity studio where guests “Craft Their Own Vibe” by making custom beauty products, sensory items, and personalized gifts in a vibrant, bar-style setting. Offering daily sessions, private parties, and mobile workshops, the studio blends wellness, artistry, and experiential retail with a scalable model designed for multi-location and mobile expansion. Learn more about them here: hausofvibesdiy.com.

TRO Energy Solutions, Inc.

TRO provides, supports, and ensures reliable EV-charging access for the 250,000 military families living on 183 U.S. military installations. Their turnkey, intuitive solution is built around cultural shifts, user behavior, and sustainable infrastructure, empowering military households to maintain personal mobility even while living in temporary, non-owned housing. Learn more about them here: troenergysolutions.com.

Where2Wheel

Where2Wheel operates a marketplace that connects off-roaders with rural landowners — the “Airbnb of off-roading” — to create new and improved legal places to ride. With demand skyrocketing and access shrinking nationwide, Where2Wheel has served 3,000+ customers, hosted over 250 bookings, surpassed $100K GMV, and launched locations across Hampton Roads, Coastal NC, the Eastern Shore, Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, with expansion underway through the Northeast. Learn more about them here: w2wparks.com.

The Finalists: A Cohort That Raised the Bar

Listed alphabetically, here are the twelve founders whose collective performance resulted in the most hard-fought finale the program has ever seen.

Cargoyle

Cargoyle produces locking hasps designed to secure shipping containers and railroad boxcars, providing a simple, durable, and highly effective solution for protecting transported goods.

Haus of Vibes DIY

Haus of Vibes DIY is a modern, hands-on creativity studio where guests “Craft Their Own Vibe” by making custom beauty products, sensory items, and personalized gifts in a vibrant, bar-style setting. Offering daily sessions, private parties, and mobile workshops, the studio blends wellness, artistry, and experiential retail. The scalable model supports future growth through additional locations and mobile activations.

HUNNiE

HUNNiE is an AI-led language learning app paired with a guided journal. The program delivers customized tools based on each user’s learning style to inspire speaking and writing in their target language.

Hypercube Motors Corporation

Hypercube Motors Corporation designed Nyla, a teleoperated robotic nurse that supports healthcare teams by handling non-critical tasks. With swappable batteries for round-the-clock operation, Nyla assists with documentation, material transfers, and responding to call bells, allowing nurses to focus on high-value clinical care.

Life Light

Life Light is a lighting device and system that uses AI to detect and communicate harmful chemical fingerprints in a user’s environment, delivering real-time early warnings for improved safety.

Loyalty Technologies

Loyalty Technologies is an advanced materials R&D company turning agricultural waste into high-value carbon nanomaterials. Their platform produces conductive carbons and graphene-like materials for energy storage, water purification, sensors, and advanced composites — providing a sustainable, cost-competitive alternative to mined graphite. Through industry and academic partnerships, they convert waste streams into next-generation materials for cleaner, smarter industries.

Marlow Royale

Marlow Royale produces lash kits that include regulated lashes approved for military contracts. Each kit contains enough lashes for personal use or resale by makeup artists, creating an additional revenue opportunity for beauty professionals.

MechaStructure

MechaStructure is a robotic-structural system enabling large structures to be built entirely by robots and actuated like giant machines for heavy-duty work. Originally developed for in-space assembly, the technology now supports terrestrial applications by deploying passive and active infrastructure in extremely remote or harsh environments where consistent human presence is difficult or impossible.

Metaclick

Metaclick is a business solutions platform that helps companies integrate AI to increase user engagement, automate tasks, reduce operational costs, and plan strategies using intelligent agentic capabilities focused on outcomes and objectives.

Southern Belle Fungus

Southern Belle Fungus grows, sells, and educates the community about mushrooms — including how they grow in the wild, how to identify them, and the benefits they provide.

TRO Energy Solutions, Inc.

TRO ensures accessible EV charging for the 250,000 military families living on 183 U.S. military installations, most of whom reside in housing they do not own and inhabit for an average of just three years. TRO has created a turnkey, intuitive charging solution designed around cultural shifts, user behavior, and the future of sustainable, reliable infrastructure.

Where2Wheel

Where2Wheel operates a marketplace that connects off-roaders with rural landowners — the “Airbnb of off-roading” — to create new and improved places to ride legally. With demand rising and supply shrinking due to urban sprawl, the platform has served over 3,000 customers, hosted more than 250 bookings, and surpassed $100K GMV. Locations are currently active in Hampton Roads, Coastal NC, the Eastern Shore, Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, and expanding up the Northeast.

A Panel Faced With an Impossible Decision

This year’s finale was shaped by five judges representing a cross-section of regional expertise:

  • Carlton Campbell – Marathon Consulting

  • Chris Davidson – Orca Strategies

  • Michele King – Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Hampden-Sydney College

  • Charlie O’Brien – 757 Collab

  • Rachel Willinger – IMPACTech Consulting

From technical founders to consumer brands, robotics to agriculture, the judges were confronted with a cohort where the margin between “finalist” and “champion” was razor-thin. Their deliberation stretched longer than any in Start Peninsula’s long-running history — a testament to the quality of every company represented.

A Celebration of Progress — and a Preview of What’s Next

The 2025 season wasn’t just competitive. It was transformational. It demonstrated that Hampton Roads is producing founders with ambition, clarity, and world-class ideas — and that regional support continues to create a launchpad where those ideas can grow.

Brittany Peregoff, Founder of Where2Wheel states, “Start Peninsula is 757’s best pitch competition – it’s a great way to refine and promote your pitch in collaboration with local entrepreneurial leaders – it should be on any 757 founders’ radars. We can’t wait to use the winnings to iterate & improve on our landowner (supply side) onboarding process for our marketplace and take our startup to the next level!”

Start Peninsula has long been one of Virginia’s most accessible and impactful early-stage programs. This year proved that the pipeline is full, the momentum is real, and the next generation of regional success stories is already taking shape.

And if this finale is any indicator, the future isn’t just promising. It’s accelerating.

Don’t miss out on key business events, local success stories, and expert insights—subscribe to This Week in 757 and stay ahead in Hampton Roads’ innovation and business community. https://bit.ly/twi757newsletter