The Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs will hold its annual intercollegiate business pitch competition at the University of Louisville for the first time next month.
Collegiate Pitch will take place on Saturday, March 2, at the UofL’s College of Business, located at 110 W. Brandeis Ave., according to a news release.
“We’re proud to host Collegiate Pitch at the University of Louisville, a longtime leader in developing impactful opportunities for the next generation of business innovators,” said GSE President and CEO Anne Jewell in the release.
The event is free and open to the public. Those who attend are welcome to watch the presentations of a total of 16 startups that were founded by students representing a collective of five Kentucky universities: UofL, University of Kentucky, Northern Kentucky University, Thomas More University and Sullivan University. The students will be vying for up to $40,000 in prize money.
“Collegiate Pitch gives college students a real-world experience to learn how to present their business ideas and secure investments in their enterprises,” said Gov. Andy Beshear in the release. “It is also an important opportunity to identify and support promising entrepreneurs and build on a foundation for innovative economic ideas in the commonwealth.”
Programming will start at 10:10 a.m. with the first of 10 presentations of the “Exploratory Track” for early-stage business ideas. Following a lunch break at 12:45 p.m, the founders of six businesses in the “Developed Track” will present, starting at 1:30 p.m. The day wraps up with the winners being announced for both tracks at 3:45 p.m.
It marks just the second time that the event will take place in Louisville after being held at the Frazier History Museum last year. In previous years, the event was called KY Pitch, until a recent rebrand.
In addition, the event is being held in conjunction with the UofL’s Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship.
“Our partnership on this event supports entrepreneurial talent in Kentucky, showcases the strength of our entrepreneurial ecosystem, and promotes entrepreneurship as a way for students across the commonwealth to work towards a prosperous future,” Said Sergey Anokhin, the center’s director, in the release.
I did a profile story on Anokhin back in November.
Since its founding in 2013, GSE alumni have gone on to launch more than 70 businesses, according to the release.
