Coming up Tuesday night, October 21, 12 entrepreneurs will compete for connections and investment by pitching their business ideas at the Emerge Innovation Hub’s fourth annual PitchFest in Benton Harbor.
Emerge Innovation Hub’s Andrew Robinson tells us family, lending institutions, and corporate leaders will all be in the crowd at PitchFest as those start-ups sell their ideas.
“They will have a selected amount of time to be able to talk, and they can’t tell it all in that one session, but it’s an opportunity for them to reach a larger audience and let people know who they are and what they do,” Robinson said.
Robinson says PitchFest was started in 2021 and has been a resounding success with several start-ups getting off the ground as a result. He says Emerge Innovation Hub exists to make things like that happen.
“Emerge Innovation Hub, in general, is an organization that really targets under-resourced, under-represented individuals in our community who have a business idea or they already have an enterprise up and running.”
Robinson says among the success stories out of the PitchFest is one business that landed a contract with Amazon.
Pitches slated to be made tonight are in the fields of digital media, martial arts, culinary arts, and health and well-being, among others. There will be prizes in the form of start-up capital for the winning pitches. The top start-up will win $7,500 and the top vetted business will receive $20,000. There will also be an award for best crowd pleaser.
Anyone can attend the PitchFest, which will begin at 6 p.m. at the GhostLight Theater tonight. You can get tickets right here.
