UW innovation community comes together to celebrate the power of ideas
The judges, from left: Emmanuel Chan of Plug and Play, Buerk instructor Elizabeth Scallon, and startup veteran Sarah Studer. They offered feedback on pitches and awarded prizes.
What difference can one minute make in the life of an idea?
On May 15, dozens of students, researchers, faculty, and staff gathered at Kane Hall to find out at the first-ever Husky PitchFest, a matchmaking event designed to connect entrepreneurial teams from across the University with potential collaborators and supporters. It was hosted by CoMotion and the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship as part of UW Innovation Month.
It was an evening of rapid-fire pitches presented to a room of raucous supporters and judges who offered feedback and awarded prizes. The 27 pitching teams were diverse, ranging from undergrads with big ideas to postdoctoral researchers prototyping medical devices and more. Each team had one minute and one slide to make their case.
“PitchFest was a great opportunity to connect with other students and community members while practicing how to pitch in front of others in a low-stakes environment,” says Amy Bosch, a member of the Buerk Center’s Lavin Entrepreneurship program who graduates this spring with her bachelor’s in biology.
Bosch is cofounder of Second Helping, an effort to redistribute leftover food from campus events to feed students and reduce waste. Her team was actually able to find homes for the leftover pizza from the PitchFest networking reception within 40 minutes!
The evening’s top prize went to Raahul Potluri, a research engineer in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and founder of Spice Box, a food delivery platform that recommends Indian dishes, regional cuisines, and restaurants. The secret to his winning pitch? “It was just a lot of practice,” he says.
“Our startup is still in the very early stages,” he adds. “We wanted to put the idea out there and let people know that there’s something new happening in the food delivery industry. Winning PitchFest gave us the confidence that we are doing something worthwhile.”
Elizabeth Scallon, who teaches pitching and public speaking for the Buerk Center’s entrepreneurship program and the Foster School’s MBA program, served as a judge. She was impressed with the pitches but her favorite part of the evening was the audience, who cheered for speakers with bright purple noisemakers.
“You could tell that the community was curious and excited to hear the pitches and learn something new,” she says. “Innovation and building can be a lonely endeavor but this community is really energizing.”