From an in-field product identification system to an automated insurance coverage verification solution, four Milwaukee companies shared their unsolved business needs at the Reverse Pitch MKE kickoff virtual event Wednesday.
Rockwell Automation Inc. and West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. are the newest companies participating in the event, which invites entrepreneurs and startups nationwide to pitch solutions to industry challenges for a chance to win cash, business services and mentorship.
Northwestern Mutual, which started Reverse Pitch MKE in 2017, and Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin, which participated last year, also highlighted problems they're looking to solve.
West Bend Mutual Insurance is seeking solutions to two different challenges: A way for property and casualty insurance customers to easily verify what's covered under their policies, and an automated way to analyze risk in order to determine whether a property inspection report is needed for new or renewed policies.
"We need different people to be engaged to see how we can solve that problem differently, as opposed to just doing things the way that we have done in the past," West Bend Mutual Insurance senior vice president and chief information officer Murali Natarajan said. "It helps us to leap forward in the technology as opposed to incrementally adding new technology. Also, I'm hoping that it'll help us understand what kind of talent pool we need for the future."
Rockwell Automation is looking for a way to quickly and accurately identify industrial electronic devices installed in field applications. In a separate challenge in partnership with Sargento Foods, it's seeking a way to leverage raw material data for prescriptive manufacturing in order to account for variations in ingredients used to make consumer packaged goods.
"We view Reverse Pitch MKE as a unique opportunity to grow the 'outside-in' piece of our innovation strategy," Rockwell Automation innovation leader Gwenn Peters said. "Outside-in encompasses everything from our partner ecosystem consortia, university partnerships and a big piece of that is awesome startups. ... What we'd really like to develop as part of this program is more co-development and experimentation alongside the startups."
Northwestern Mutual posed two challenges for entrepreneurs to help solve. It needs a scalable way to support responsible social media use among its financial representatives and a solution to help build and strengthen inclusive relationships among its dispersed workforce. Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin is asking entrepreneurs to help boost health literacy and trust.
The participating companies and the MKE Tech Hub Coalition, which now runs Reverse Pitch MKE, will provide mentorship and domain expertise to the entrepreneurs who sign up to tackle the corporate challenges. Interested individuals are asked to submit interest by Nov. 17 and submit a full application by Dec. 31. Selected entrepreneurs will pitch back their solutions to the companies in February.
Winners of Reverse Pitch MKE will earn $10,000 as well as more than $8,000 of in-kind services, including legal support from Godfrey & Kahn SC, back-office support from Trivium and co-working space from Serendipity Labs. Past winners have gone on to launch local startups, including social media referral engine Socialeads and artificial intelligence company Pythonic AI.
See the full corporate challenges statements and learn more on the Reverse Pitch MKE website.
