SoGal Salt Lake: Pitch, Please
Ten fearless founders gave their pitch on a snowy October evening in Salt Lake City — three came away with a chance at $600,000. Read on for a recap of this fantastic night.
Halloween hadn’t hit yet, but it was already snowing in Salt Lake. Undeterred, our founders warmed the crowd (appropriately, at Kiln coworking space) during the Salt Lake Regional Round of the SoGal Global Pitch Competition.
Through lightning-fast rounds, our founders pitched their business ideas to a full house. Judges had just one minute to ask a question before moving on. The whirlwind of pitches took us through nearly every industry, from PreOv’s fertility tech to The Loaf’s paleo bread to The W Collective’s female-forward media platform.
By the end of the night our judges had their work cut out for them. The nine amazing ideas had to be whittled down to just three who would advance to the global round of the SoGal Pitch Competition. Winners not only have an opportunity to compete for up to $600,000, but also to participate in a three-day bootcamp in Silicon Valley including 1:1 mentorship and curated educational programming.
After our last founder pitched, we quelled the crowd with a quick recap of the judging criteria. Founders were evaluated on Team Strength, Idea Strength, and Traction. The fates of our founders were in capable hands with judges Thomas Knowles of Gratitude Railroad, Kimmy Paluch of Beta Boom, Kassidi Henrie of Prenda, and Sydnie Keddington of KickStart.
Deliberation from the judges was intense, but decisive. Upon their return from the Ada Lovelace meeting room at Kiln, they delivered their decision.
And the winners are…
Johanna Dasteel of The Loaf, Apoorva and Sree Chintala of Clocr, and Jamaica Trinnaman of Hello! Bulk Markets! Our judges advanced these amazing businesses on to the global round of the pitch competition in February 2020.
As the excitement from the announcement of the winners subsided, the crowd palpably shifted to an aura of support. Congratulations went all around for amazing presentations, fantastic ideas, incredible support and overall greatness. There were no losers in this crowd, just inspiring leaders.
The warmth and joy that filled the room that night were the perfect remedy to the unseasonably cold evening and we couldn’t have asked for it to be any other way.
All photos by Milan Reed
