2020 PitchTexas Competition
Cancelled as of March 6, 2020
City of Austin Coronavirus Disaster Declaration
See you next year at SXSW!
ABOUT
The Graduate Entrepreneurship + Innovation Club at Texas McCombs was the sponsor of the 7th annual PitchTexas competition at SXSW.
The graduate and undergraduate student-led startup has been cancelled due to corona virus following the directive of the City of Austin natural disaster declaration.
*In addition, the top UT graduate-level team will be admitted to the fall Texas Venture Labs practicum*
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Reviewers will judge PitchTexas applications to identify 16 student-founded companies to compete in the semi-finals the morning of March 13, 2020.
In the evening, four finalist teams will take the stage and compete to win PitchTexas 2020.
EVENT DETAILS—CANCELLED
WHEN
March 13, 2020
WHERE
Fairmont Hotel Austin
101 Red River St, Austin, TX 78701
SCHEDULE
8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Semi-finalists will be given 5 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes for Q&A. Judges will provide teams with 5 minutes of feedback.
Four teams will be in each semi-final room, with one finalist selected per room.
Noon – 1 p.m.
Lunch with contestants and judges and announcement of finalist teams.
5 – 6 p.m.
Finalists will be given 5 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes for Q&A. Judges will evaluate the groups on feasibility of pitch, viability of investment, and founding team.
Four teams will present in the final round. Finalists will receive a SXSW Interactive badge.
Please note that this schedule may be subject to change.
2020 SEMIFINALISTS
ARMS Cyber
Vanderbilt University
CAPNOS LLC
Michigan State University
Cardiosense
Northwestern University
Chirie
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Clocr Inc.
University of Texas at Austin
F3 Healthcare, LLC
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
GeneTiger
University of Texas at Austin
HiPR Innovation, Inc.
University of Texas at Austin
Pigeon Communications Inc.
University of Texas at Austin
Pocket Punch
University of Texas at Austin
Posey
Northwestern University
Shelf Life
Harvard Business School
Soctera
Cornell University
TemPower
University of Pennsylvania
Trashbots
University of Texas at Austin
Tripology
University of Texas at Austin
2020 APPLICATION REVIEWERS
The following team helped evaluate 155 student teams to identify the top 16 invited to pitch during the PitchTexas semi finals
Roberto Aguayo
Partner, Leap Global Partners; Co-Founder, Fairplay Park
Jonathan Alba
Researcher, IC2 Institute
Rush Bartlett
Global VP of Innovation, Lansinoh Laboratories
Christian Battaglia
Sr. Software Engineer, Amplify
Andrew Bourdillon
Venture Fellow, Brand Foundry
James Chance
Founder, yourself.online
Haley Deiber
Sr. Associate, Unusual Ventures
Justin Felder
Sr. Legal Compliance Analyst, Indeed
Sloan Foster
Co-Founder & CEO, AutoThink Inc.
Perry Ginsburg
Venture Fellow, Treaty Oak Equit
Alec Grubbs
Venture Fellow, S3 Ventures
David Heitzer
Business Origination, EDF Energy Services
Sam Hogan
VP, McCombs Entrepreneurship Society
Emily Jones
Director, PitchTexas; Venture Fellow, Sputnik ATX
Johnny Li
Co-Founder, Parvenu
Heidi Mackay
VP, McCombs Entrepreneurship Society
Sam McBride
Venture Fellow, Owner Resource Group
Eddie McCormick
Risk Analyst, Millburn Ridgefield Corporation
Mary Moreno
Venture Fellow, Next Coast Ventures
Mark Murdock
Executive in Residence, Austin Technology Incubator
Ken Nguyen
Venture Fellow, Altos Partners
Aaron Perman
Vice President, S3 Ventures
Chantal Pittman
EVP Operations, Media Assembly
Jon Plasek
Venture Fellow, CapStreet Group
Isabel Pryzant
Venture Fellow, Blue Sage Capital
Trent Segers
Director, PitchTexas 2019; Moonshots Capital
Carol Thompson
Founder, The Thompson Group
Carl Thorne-Thomsen
Sr. Product Manager, Civitas Learning
Tucker Villarreal
Attorney, Richards Rodriguez & Skeith LLP
JD Weinstein
Oracle for Startups, North America
John Wheeler
Founder, Empire Learning
Liza Willmore
Manager, Accenture Consulting
James Wright
Venture Fellow, S3 Ventures
Alice Xue
Advisor, South West Angel Network
2020 SEMI FINALS JUDGES
SCOTT COLLIER
Business Development, Whole Foods
KEVIN FISHNER
Chief of Staff, HashiCorp
GENEVIEVE GILBREATH
General Partner, Springdale Ventures
NINA HO
Assistant Director, Blackstone LaunchPad
MITCH JACOBSON
Director, Austin Technology Incubator & Blackstone LaunchPad
VERENA KALLHOFF
Workspaces Manager, Texas Health CoLab
OKSANA MALYSHEVA
Managing Partner, Sputnik ATX
MICHAEL MASSAD
Senior Associate, Elsewhere Partners;
Director, PitchTexas 2018
CALVIN MAYS
Principal, Qubicle Design
JOE MERRILL
Partner, Sputnik ATX
KERRY RUPP
General Partner, True Wealth Ventures
STEVE SCHAFFER
Venture Partner, Capital Factory
2020 FINALS JUDGES
Gregory L. Fenves
29th President of The University of Texas at Austin
Since 2015, Gregory Fenves and his administration have worked to expand access to the university for talented students across the state of Texas. He has prioritized diversity and inclusion, invested heavily in faculty and their research, expanded experiential learning opportunities for students, and has overseen strategic efforts that have led to the highest four-year graduation rates in the university’s history. As provost and president, he launched the Dell Medical School at UT Austin, which is dedicated to transforming health and health care locally and globally.
Mellie Price
CEO & Chairwoman at WP Engine
Mellie Price is a highly experienced innovation and operations executive, venture fund manager, angel investor, philanthropist, data geek, and technologist who has worked in organizations ranging from non-profits to startups to publicly traded companies to state government.
Price, an eight-time entrepreneur, is also well known as a co-founder of the nationally recognized startup accelerator program and entrepreneurial hub, Capital Factory. In 2015, Mellie launched SoftMatch, a tech-enabled corporative innovation consulting firm, to help Fortune 1000 companies connect with the emerging technologies, startups, and talent that can help navigate this era of digital disruption. Formerly, Price was the Founder & CEO of Front Gate Solutions/Front Gate Tickets, one of the largest privately held primary market ticketing software platforms in the US/Canada from 2002 to 2015 when it was sold to Live Nation/Ticketmaster.
Kevin Curry
Founder, Fit Men Cook
Kevin Curry is the founder of FitMenCook, an online community that inspires men and women to eat healthy and stay fit with food that is never boring. With over 2 million followers around the world, he is one of the most sought-after influencers in nutrition, fitness, health and wellness.
Kevin has a FitMenCook app that is currently the #1 app in the health category in over 80 countries. Furthermore, Kevin recently released his first cookbook, Fit Men Cook: 100+ Meal Prep Recipes for Men and Women – Always #HealthyAF, Never Boring in December 2018 which immediately went to the top of Amazon’s fitness category within a month. Since the launch of FitMenCook, Kevin has been featured in national online publications such as Forbes, Men’s Health, SELF, Shape Magazine as well as television appearances Live! with Kelly and Ryan, Rachael Ray Show and TODAY.
Note: This year we invite both graduate and undergraduate students from all areas of study!
TIMELINE
See below for PitchTexas 2020 dates.
Application Deadline
January 27
Semifinalists Announced
Week of February 17
Semi-Final Round
March 13, 2020 from 8 a.m. – Noon (CST)
Finalist Round
March 13, 2020 from 5 – 6 p.m. (CST)
APPLICATION DETAILS
The application for PitchTexas 2020 included the following:
Team Details
Who is on your team, where you are from, and what you are studying?
Startup Overview
Tagline , brief company description, industry categorization, stage of development, and a 2 minute elevator pitch video.
Opportunity
A short description of the investment opportunity and how you will spend the money if your team wins.
PitchTexas 2019
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2019 WINNER
Yourself.online empowers you to fix your online legacy by providing you with the tools to manage your online data and privacy. Founded by two ex-Googlers, yourself.online is a pre-seed online data and privacy management service.
Check out the runners up from PitchTexas 2019!
2nd Place - Slate is creating a better tattoo experience with the first online marketplace for tattoos. We connect customers to a curated selection of top tattoo artists by style and location.
3rd Place - Hubly is modernizing the intracranial bedside procedure by replacing manual hand drills with an integrated electric drill system to reduce complications from physician error.
Check out the UT activation at SXSW!
Thanks to our event organizers and partners:
The Graduate Entrepreneurship + Innovation Club, Blackstone LaunchPad, McCombs Alumni Network, Canfield Business Honors Program, Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs, McCombs MBA & MS programs, the Graduate School of Business, and Texas Exes
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