A grand total of 39 teams pitched their early-stage start-up ideas to a panel of three entrepreneur-judges on Mar. 13 and 14. Each day five firms were selected for Velocity’s 5K competition. They will go on to fight for one of four prizes of $5,000 on Mar. 21.
The pitch competition, which was conducted in the Arts Lecture Hall, featured three-minute one-person pitches that forced presenters to be brief and confident. Not all presentations went smoothly; many entrepreneurs spent valuable seconds struggling to verbalize what they wanted to say, though many were able to learn from the mistakes of previous performances. The final presenters on both days, WatVision and TobyX, presented skillfully, but certainly took previous critiques into account.
There were also some contestants who could have used more time to prepare, such as one firm that reused their pitch for the 25K Velocity Pitch Contest, and two start-ups attempting to digitize receipts. Nevertheless, Mallory McKewen, founder of BridesMade and panelist on Mar. 13, said, “There was no one whom I thought ‘no, you’re kind of wasting your time.’”
On Mar. 28 the 20 finalists of Velocity’s 25K competition will compete for one of four monetart prizes of $25000.
