Five finalists competed for $5,000 at DBP’s latest ‘Make It in Brooklyn’ pitch contest.

Food Period, a Brooklyn-based food innovation startup that makes food products that support and improve menstrual cycles, won DBP’s Make It in Brooklyn Food + AgTech pitch contest on Wednesday night. Hosted at NYU’s Urban Future Lab in Downtown Brooklyn, Food Period beat out four other entrepreneurs in a very close competition, taking home the $5,000 cash prize and the opportunity to pitch their products to Whole Foods Market. The startup also received in-kind legal services provided by the Brooklyn Law Incubator and Policy Clinic (BLIP) and the Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE) at Brooklyn Law School.

The competition showcased a top selection of NYC startups that are revolutionizing the way we grow, produce, and eat food. Apart from Food Period, these included: Breukelen Rub, a Brooklyn-based spice company; Food Moves, a marketplace that connects mobile food vendors to consumers and suppliers; Grow Computer, a builder of smart and user-centric IoT-enabled products; and We Are The New Farmers, a startup growing foods of the future for health-conscious consumers.

Each finalist had three minutes to make their pitch to a panel of five esteemed judges. After listening to and asking questions of the five entrepreneurs, the judges withdrew for thorough deliberations, ultimately selecting Food Period for their potential appeal to millions of women across America and beyond.

The judges panel featured a range of successful startups, VCs, and influential voices in the food and AgTech industries: Henry Gordon-Smith, Co-Founder of AgTech X; Allison Kopf, Founder & CEO of Agrilyst; Christopher Manca, Whole Foods Forager for Whole Foods Market; Charlie O’Donnell, Partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures; and the winner of last year’s Food Innovation pitch contest — Tinia Pina, Founder & CEO of Re-Nuble.

Make It in Brooklyn supports entrepreneurship and strengthens Brooklyn’s innovation ecosystem through a series of pitch contests, meet-ups, and panels. These events have brought together hundreds of entrepreneurs and provided over $100K in seed money, as well as valuable pro-bono professional services.

Thanks go to our sponsor, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, who underwrite the Make It in Brooklyn series, and event partners Urban Future Lab, AgTech X, and Agritecture.