Pitch Competition

Competition Grouping

The Pitch Ideas are being grouped into 3 segments: “Smart City, Improvements to Industry and any idea that you have that does not fall in these two can fall into the “Open” category.

The SMART City efforts include 3 primary objectives: Focus on improvements in the use of Energy, Transportation, and Communication for our citizens. Here are some examples of a Pitch Idea in each category:

1. Smart City – turn street lights down or off when people are not around.
2. Industry – enable more efficient uses of utilities, lower operating cost, easier to use products, product ideas that open up new industries or business
3. Open – create drone-based Pizza delivery at a football game or esports gaming event. Make activities easier for the disabled. Significantly modify an existing product and make it better.
4.  

Participation Rules and Guidelines: 

Participants can include Early Stage companies with a well-developed MVP (Minimum Viable Product), and Pre-Revenue, as well as existing businesses that have launched but are seeking additional mentoring, funding, and exposure to VC and Angel Investors.

1. Register Idea – Participants will register their “Idea” on the Tech-Prize.org website. Registration will be open from now through August 31st, 2022. Click here to complete the Pitch Registration Form
2. Personal Mentor – For each Entrepreneur accepted into the program, a mentor will be assigned to assist in the preparation for the Pitch event.   Mentors will meet individually with a participant to determine where they are in the pitch process, advise on the next steps and connect to others that can benefit or enable as well.
3. Prerecorded Pitch presentation-  Each pitch will follow a specific presentation structure (Click to download PowerPoint presentation guideline) and will include a 6-minute pitch. The participants will be asked to pre-record the pitch to ensure management of time and eliminate issues from virtual participation. The prerecorded Pitches will be published on Tech-Prize Website and Social Media Channels for public voting.
4.  Who gets to Pitch Live?  All the published Pitch videos and other artifacts provided during the application process will be reviewed in the first two weeks of August.  A judging panel will select the top 10 applicants will be based on initial evaluations will be invited to pitch live and answer questions by a panel of judges, consisting of  VC,  Investors, and Business Executives.
5. Awarding Prizes – The competition prizes will be awarded on Saturday, September 17th, at 7:00 PM, on the stage in Monument Square. In the case of inclement weather, an alternate site will be designated.
6. Voting Process – App-based public voting will run from 8:00 AM Friday, September 9th through Saturday, September 17 at 4:00 PM. Click the button below to download the App.
7. Voting App Pitch Representation: The Voting App will summarize what is available physically in the Host Location and allow the inventor to share their message when they are not physically present to discuss with the person. It is assumed that people who are voting will see your item downtown, in the host location. That is part of the process that TP is working to accomplish. We are also not seeking to have a competition on who can market voting for their ideas online as well.  This is not an online marketing competition.  Items to be included in the online voting app:
   • Team picture and Bio
   • Short written description of the idea with pictures to support
   • A 90 second video (60-90 seconds is most likely optimum) to overview your idea. This is your “Elevator Pitch” to explain your idea concisely and help the individual seeing it understand it. We would recommend 3 points be made on this. “What” you are doing, “How” it will be done and then “Why” you are doing it. In this, you cover the brief version of the “Story Board” that is available and printed in the physical location.
8. Vote Tabulation – Vote quantities will be tabulated on Saturday afternoon on 9/17. In the case of a “Tie”, the awards for those tied will be accumulated and shared evenly between the award winners

Download Voting App

What can I win by participating? 

1. This Pitch event is one of the best opportunities to test and improve your pitch
2. Exposure to angel investors, venture capitalists, and other funders.
3. Win Cash prizes and a host of in-kind services to allow you to expand and grow your business.
4.  Network, Network, Network! The key to growing your business

How does the competition work for 2022?

1. The participants will provide a 6 minute video of their pitch and summary material during the registration process. The judging commitee will review the applications and select top 10 pitches.
2. The top 10 pitch presentations will be available on Tech-Prize  FaceBook page and on the website. Judging by the general public and voting that will occur on the “Tech-Prize Idea App”
3. On September 17, the top 10 applicants will answer the questions  during a Live Q & A session with a panel of industry experts and VC Investors.
4. The Panel will judge the Pitch videos and answers given during the  live pitch event. The criteria for judging is laid out above.  All individuals voting will be requested to consider those guidelines in their voting.
5. Innovators are encouraged to be physically present with their Pitch presentation to answer questions, discuss the idea with potential investors, etc. A Virtual presentation option will be available for those attending from a remote location.
6. Fan Favorite (Public) Voting will be geo-fenced so that a person must be in the Racine Community to vote
7. Fan Favorite (Public) Votes for an individual idea will be restricted to 1 vote for the downloaded App. You can vote for multiple ideas that are believed to be strong and implementable
8. Fan Favorite Vote quantities will be tabulated on Saturday afternoon 9/17. In the case of a “Tie”, the awards for those tied will be accumulated and shared evenly between the award winners

Who will be eligible for the Live Pitch event?

The group of applicants will post their 6-minute video and summary material during the registration process.  Those applications will be reviewed in the first two weeks of August.  A final selection of the top 10 applicants will then be invited to pitch live for the judges, investors, and prizes on September 17th.

How will we select the Top 10 applicants?

A panel will review the submitted videos and material.  All applicants will be scored on the following scale.  The top 10 recipients based on the total points will then be invited to pitch at the live competition.  The same judging criteria will be used at the Live Pitch event.