Newly honored as a ‘world-changing idea,’ Pure Pitch Rally opens 2021 contest applications

A premier Kansas City pitch competition that awards emerging tech founders on-the-spot cash funding, along with a series of business bootcamp experiences, was honored this week among Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas.

The winners include businesses, policies, projects and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.

Karen Fenaroli, photo by Mikaela Wendell

The Pure Pitch Rally, now in its sixth year, was selected for an honorable mention in the magazine’s Impact Investing category.

Click here to check out the results of the 2020 Pure Pitch Rally.

The pitch contest seeks innovators from across all aspects of technology who are creating solutions to enhance communities and improve quality of life — aligning well with the ideals of the World Changing Ideas Awards, said Karen Fenaroli, founder of Pure Pitch Rally and CEO of Fenaroli & Associates. 

“From the very beginning, Pure Pitch Rally showed promise to disrupt the local economy as a funding equalizer and a networking game-changer. I’m humbled and honored that the program was recognized as world-changing,” she said of the Kansas City-based pitch event, which awards more than $1 million in resources and cash funding — via a crowd of “land sharks” who individually designate winning pitches — to early-stage tech startups.

“Every startup thinks that funding is the cure and launch of their cap table. It isn’t!” Fenaroli continued. “The best and most unique feature of the Pure Pitch Rally is the networks that startup founders create. New networks create funding. Funding creates opportunity. Opportunity creates equity.”

Pure Pitch Rally is now accepting applications for its 2021 cohort. Enterprising startups based in the Kansas City area can apply for the opportunity to be one of eight companies selected to pitch at the in-person Oct. 18 event in the City Beautiful Ballroom at the Loews Kansas City Hotel.

Click here to apply. The deadline is Aug. 13.

Pure Pitch Rally 2020 competitors

Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 33 winners, more than 400 finalists, and more than 800 honorable mentions. A panel of magazine editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 4,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology and other categories.

The magazine’s summer issue (on newsstands May 10) is expected to highlight, among others, a lifesaving bassinet; the world’s largest carbon sink, thanks to carbon-eating concrete; 3D-printed schools; an at-home COVID-19 testing kit; a mobile voting app; and the world’s cleanest milk. 

Pure Pitch Rally brings together more than 130 CEOs, VIPs, angel funders and investors to network and collaborate while supporting the local tech startup community.

On top of cash funding, selected pitchers will be invited to four exclusive events that aim to help founders to make the most of the PPR spotlight: 

• Pitch Bootcamp: In preparation for the big event, Eric Morgenstern, CEO of Morningstar Communications, will share his Generally Accepted Presentation Principles to help pitchers understand the 10 core principles of GAPP and be able to develop and deliver more persuasive presentations with this proven process. He will then provide individual pitch coaching for refinement. 
• Brand Bootcamp: Following the event, marketing experts from Circle Sideways and partners will team up to break down each pitcher’s biggest marketing challenges and brainstorm ways to turn them into opportunities for solidifying the brand and positioning the company successfully for growth. 
• Fund Bootcamp: With a pitch and brand well on their way to being perfected, our participants will have the opportunity to pick the brains of professionals from sponsors BKD and Polsinelli to address their funding and financial accounting needs. This bootcamp encourages collaboration across pitchers to identify pressing questions that will get answered. 
• Product Dev Bootcamp: An essential part of success in building a tech startup is strategically executing product development. Land sharks and sponsors will divulge the secrets of building a winning tech stack that positions our founders to engage clients and customers, generate revenue and prepare to scale.

Click here to learn more about Pure Pitch Rally.