Long Island Entrepreneurs Selected by A&E Project Startup

After giving his students a creative physical education exercise, teacher Josh Bonventre had the eureka moment that would get him noticed by A&E.

“I actually went home that day and decided to listen to my own good advice about being creative and create a game of my own,” said Bonventre, who teaches at Miller Avenue School in Shoreham. “I wanted to create a game that got more people involved because with a lot of games, you typically have one person who is involved at a time, so I wanted to see if we could get three or four people involved.”

This led to the creation of RampShot, a backyard game where the objective is to toss a racquetball-sized bouncy ball into a hole on the top of one of two ramp-shaped game boards. Bonventre teamed up with good friend Kevin Texeira who “has a good business background and is also a family man too,” to perfect the game and to get it a proper audience.

“He’s played a very crucial role in every aspect of the company, so it’s a true partnership,” Bonventre said. “We wanted to create a game that would initiate friends and families getting together more often for some great outdoor fun, that would keep more players involved, was competitive, and yet could be played by almost anyone.”

The game was selected by A&E Project Startup, which partnered with crowd-funding platform RocketHub to provide funding to “help entrepreneurs propel their business ideas to the next level.”

“A&E Project Startup provides an outstanding opportunity for entrepreneurs, enabling access to funding and pathways to new audiences,” RocketHub CEO Brian Meece said. “RocketHub is excited to see RampShot selected as part of this dynamic partnership.”

Last month, the partners launched a crowd-funding campaign on the site and managed to raise nearly $24,800, over 70 percent of their initial goal of $35,000. 

They also established a company, Shore Creation LLC., to back the game and to pay homage to Long Island, from which they are both natives.

“I grew up in East Patchogue and I currently live in Center Moriches, so I was always a South Shore Long Islander,” Bonventre said. “My partner, Kevin Texeira, he grew up and still lives in Mount Sinai on the North Shore, so we kind of wanted to pay a little homage to being a Long Islander and growing up on the water. Being able to include that in our company name was just kind of a fun way to keep it a part of Long Island.”