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PitchUp is designed to heighten awareness of new or emerging businesses who are developing helpful, sustainable, or disruptive innovations. This competition provides the chance for inspiring founders to win cash and services, propelling their positive intentions into fruition.
The founders who participate in this competition learn how to collect and structure their business and innovation ideas into a business plan, a product demo video, and into a pitch presentation, which improves their overall public communications skills. PitchUp is considered a difficult competition, but well worth the efforts. On average, founders work on their entries for 20 hours to complete the required submission items. Yet, the support and instruction that founders receive from BoomStartup mentors during their process, in addition to accessing the training modules and videos, are extremely helpful and instrumental to not only compete well in the competition, but to also succeed in business settings.
PitchUp is an opportunity for founders to hone their messaging, connect with other entrepreneurs, and get to know our judges (many of whom are investors) in addition to the publicity rewarded to the finalists. The BoomStartup mentor community and open office hours are fantastic resources for direct involvement and support to founders who need a bit of guidance.
Founders who submit will need to choose a single competition category. They are required to identify the type of technology that is at the core of their innovation.
We encourage everyone to participate in this fun event! These are the three important dates for the competition. Questions about PitchUp? Contact us.
Choose one category to compete within. Your selection will determine who your entry is competing against, and the final number of entries is unknown until the application window is closed.
Innovations that are solving climate change, energy sourcing, and creating a more sustainable global environment to shape a better future, starting now.
Innovations that improve either personal understanding, educational process, or outcomes for society, leveraging creativity and connectivity.
Digital advancements to help physical, mental, or spiritual well being that can make a difference on a daily basis.
Technology that improves inventory management, delivery vehicles, shipments, and operations on a global level.
Up-leveling business productivity, mechanisms and efficiencies covering applications, data management, communications and connectivity.
Innovations that improve economic standings either through banking, payments, investments, wealth management, coverage, etc.
Technology that enables faster and better digital development, improving security, development, monetization, or platform performance.
The PitchUp Three Finalists will be scored based upon their submissions and their live presentation and Q&A with these well-known, founder-oriented judges. The winners will be announced at the end of PitchUp Three Finals. Sign up now to get tickets to watch the live event.
Founder at Lateral Solutions, Startup Advisor
Partner at Now CFO, CPA, Investor, Startup Advisor
Board Member at Zeist Ventures, Advisor, Investor, Cofounder of Oars + Alps
Senior Associate at Teamworthy Ventures
CEO, Outcode Software, Startup Advisor
Program Director, Wasatch Innovation Network
COO at Gust. Angel Investor, Growth Advisor
Co-founder, President at Assure, Angel Investor
Founder, CEO at The Influential Voice, Angel Investor
Attorney at Greenberg Traurig, Angel Investor, Advisor, BoomStartup Mentor
Co-founder at TechBuzz, Tech Advocate, Entrepreneur
CEO at Freshwater Advisors, CTO, Investor, Startup Advisor, Venture Accelerator
Taiwan Startup Terrace(TST) is a startup hub supported by the Taiwanese government (SMEA, MOEA). Aims to form the nucleus of the entire ecosystem, gravitating a lot of corporate, tech companies like early to late stage startups. We hold various matchmakings for helping startups find their potential partners from home and abroad. TST is your first gateway to the Asian market.
Virtual Landing Program (VLP) is born because of COVID-19. All the events are virtual. With Taiwan Startup ecosystem overview, matchmaking, consulting and mentoring, participants can not only meet potentials at Taiwan before landing but also get a chance to become residents at TST.
Freshwater Advisors is a venture development firm and innovation consultancy that connects corporations to startups within the entrepreneurial ecosystems. Freshwater Advisors is the delivery partner for the AWS Sustainable Cities Accelerator.
Freshwater’s scouting efforts culminate in a private demo day where clients invite a select group of startups to pitch to decision-makers.
The top 3 finalists in Logistics + Transportation win a Strategy Review Meeting with David Weinstein. David will schedule an assessment and advisory meeting with each of the finalists to provide strategic direction and insight about helpful resources or other programs to bolster market-entry activities.
David Weinstein was the founding president of Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (1871) and ran the Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund.
Lateral Solutions is an outsourced operational firm that supports startups by reducing the workload for HR, accounting, and bookkeeping.
Lateral Solutions provides full internal operations management as well as ad hoc services to ensure operational excellence on a startup budget.
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This competition is about pitching companies that create innovations, so the narrative of your pitch should be more like speaking to an investor, rather than a customer. For example, focus on your company and how it’s solving a big problem instead of trying to sell the innovation itself.
We encourage founders from diverse backgrounds to apply.
Don’t be shy about entering the PitchUp competition if your startup isn’t earning revenue yet. Yes, we do ask about historical financials, but it is okay to say there is no revenue!
If you want to share your costs or investments to date, please do. We would like to see your financial projection for the next year or two, if possible. It can be as simple as Number of Units sold or Customers, multiplied by Sale Price (equaling revenue), then subtracting out Cost of Goods Sold, to estimate your company’s profitability.
Need help with building your financials? Check out this Financials training module.
Step 1: Complete the entry form below.
Step 2: Download the PitchUp competition material and download the slide template and demo template to begin creating your pitch materials.
Step 3: Upload your pitch deck and 90-second video to complete your submission.
The submission process is straightforward.
You must complete the Entry Form telling us about who is presenting, the company, and the category you are entering.
Then we strongly suggest that you FOLLOW the Pitch Deck Template (we tell you exactly what slide to provide and in what order) and attach an UP TO 90 SECOND Demo Video so the first round judging can learn and understand more of your product.
All of this material is DUE BEFORE the Submission Date which is midnight on March 14.
PitchUp competition is FREE to enter. Entrants can only apply to compete in ONE category.
We ask you to agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. You will also be considered for the BoomStartup Accelerator program based upon the information that you provide us.
The cost of the competition is covered by our sponsors, so please show them your support.
There are seven competition categories: Climate and Sustainability, Education and Intelligence, Health and Wellness, Logistics and Transportation, Enterprise Solutions, Finance, Digital Toolkits.
You’ll want to customize your pitch presentation and demo to emphasize the influence this category has upon your company and innovation.
After reviewing all submissions, we will rank and interview the top contenders to compete in each category.
The Final Pitch Competition will be hosted virtually. Winners will be selected after presenting at the live, online competition. The finalists will present a condensed, three-minute business pitch and host a two-minute demo, for a total of 5 minutes on stage. Our judges will then have the opportunity to ask the presenter up to three questions, and presenters have up to three minutes for their response. Response quality, personality, and precision will influence the final vote.
Each category winner will receive $1,000 USD.
Judges will review the material submitted (the entry form, pitch deck, demo video) and rank each submission, considering every submission in the category.
Scoring is based on Professionalism, Traction, Viability, Reach, and most importantly, Innovation.
The top three in scoring will proceed to the finals. Finalists will get support from BoomStartup mentors on their final pitch delivery. Finalists pitch live virtually over Zoom to the judges and to a live audience.
We are often asked if people should produce a professional video or get artists to help out with their deck.
We think you should do the best you can with the resources you have. It is a competition but this is not a funding pitch. If you record a demo on your mobile phone and send that to us, that’s fine!
Please upload both the pitch deck and demo video at the same time on this page: https://boomstartup.com/pitchup3-upload/
If you make it to the finals, congratulations! You are about to experience a really fun time.
You will get 3-minutes to present to the judges and to the voters in the audience that you should win your category and the popular vote.
This is a free-form time where you are on camera, can share your screen or do an actual demo. We recommend that you script and time it to make sure you are under the three minutes or else we will cut you off (it’s embarrassing).
Then the judges will ask you questions for the following 2-minutes to see how you respond on the fly.
After the top three category winners present, the judges will vote and at the end of the final event a category winner will be announced.
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Sending a huge thank you to these sponsors who support innovation and early-stage company growth.
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Join the top finalists and our live judge panel on April 15, 2022 starting at 11am MST. Register to attend now and also get updates on who makes it to the finals!.
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BoomStartup Accelerator is a proud supporter of SOUTH SUMMIT. South Summit gathers the world’s leading companies, startups, entrepreneurs, and investors over 3 days to accelerate innovation, building relationships that last a lifetime.
They host a world-wide startup pitch competition which BoomStartup judges, in several locations.