Pure Pitch surprise twist: Techweek competition adds pre-teen innovator to KC startup lineup
October 8, 2018 | Startland News Staff
In a surprise announcement Monday, organizers of the Pure Pitch Rally announced the third annual pitch competition would feature the Kansas City pre-teen innovator behind the Storm Sleeper.
Update: Click here to find out who won big at the Pure Pitch Rally.
Donald Hawkins, CitySmart
Julia Luetje — a Barstow School student from Leawood, who at 10 years old won Frito-Lay’s $250,000 Dreamvention grand prize winner for her noise-reduction invention — joins established entrepreneur Donald Hawkins, founder of the white label, SaaS platform CitySmart, and eight early stage startups Wednesday in the fast-paced, invite-only pitch event during Techweek Kansas City.
Click here to learn more about Luetje’s Storm Sleeper device.
Pure Pitch contestants are vying for $30,000 in cash and $500,000 in Amazon AWS Activate credits, as well as $50,000 in tech resources from Full Scale, the high-growth talent development startup helmed by Startup Hustle podcast hosts Matt DeCoursey and Matt Watson. Prizes are awarded by “land sharks,” who each give $1,000 to companies of their choice, but take no equity in exchange.
Startup competitors include:
- Sara Baker, FastDemocracy
- Rhonda Dolan, Üdo
- Brian Kearns, HipHire
- Lauren Lawrence, Stenovate
- Erin Little, Rx Hackers
- Carlanda McKinney, Raaxo
- Kirby Montgomery, TheraWe Connect
- Aubrey Young, Fluence
“For our third year, we have the magic aligned — the land sharks, the funding, the velocity of ideas and our networking mission,” said Karen Fenaroli, founder of Pure Pitch Rally and CEO and founder of talent consultancy Fenaroli & Associates. “Why does the Pure Pitch Rally work in Kansas City? We have a hunger to help others, and this means showing up as mentors, as angel funders and as a community. The pitch works in this great Midwest city because of startup mentor friends like Polsinelli, Circle Sideways, BKD, Amazon and Full Scale.”
Some of the new and returning land sharks include such high-profile funders as Terry Dunn, DD Ranch Ventures; Pam Berneking, chief commercial officer, CommunityAmerica Credit Union; Matt Watson, CEO, Stackify and FullScale.io; Angela Hurt, CEO, Veracity Consulting, Inc.; Scott Hedrick, CEO, Pro Athlete Inc.; Jill Groebl, senior vice president of client services, Intouch Solutions; Ryan Merket, Amazon BD Startups; Lesa Mitchell, managing director, Techstars Kansas City; and Keith Molzer, general partner, Flyover Capital.
Featured Business
2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Why the Savannah Bananas founder is coming back to KC (with a tip of his hat to winning leadership styles)
Jesse Cole isn’t afraid to reimagine the way things are done in business, he shared, and his brand of Banana Ball is paying off. In the past nine years, the ringleader of the Savannah Bananas — baseball’s answer to the trick ball-handling and exhibition athleticism of the Harlem Globetrotters — has gone from selling his…
‘Never settle’: He started small, now Drue Stewart is bringing TikTok-famous food to former Westport Ale House
‘Bigger, better, crazier; Never settle; The building had a dark cloud but we are going to bring new life to it’ Less than a year after opening Holy Brunch KC in Westport — and one small expansion — Drue Stewart is making an enormous leap. He’ll go from 2,000-square-feet on one floor, to a 16,000-square-foot…
Great Jobs KC leaps closer to its $100M goal with massive grant to support adult financial stability
A just-announced $60 million investment by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation marks a significant step in a Kansas City-based nonprofit’s plans to support 50,000 adults on their journeys toward financial stability, said Earl Martin Phalen. The grant to Great Jobs KC serves three priorities outlined within the Kauffman Foundation’s new grantmaking strategy: college access and…
Teens tackle universal pain points: Junior Achievement competition pushes students to pitch biz ideas
A new student innovation competition linked to Junior Achievement not only challenges Kansas City teens to develop business solutions for immediate real-world problems, said Will Bowler; fostering entrepreneurial thinking develops longer-term impacts. “This program empowers them,” said Bowler, a teacher at Olathe East High School, as students wrapped up Tuesday’s 3DE Innovators Showcase at the…