VC Fast Pitch competition for tech startups to be held in Orlando soon

On Feb. 2, the second VC Fast Pitch event in Florida was held at Catapult Lakeland, where entrepreneurs pitched to a panel of investors.

VC Fast Pitch

By Sarah Kinbar - Staff writer

July 06, 2023, 09:17am EDT Updated 07/06/2023 12:51 pm

Startups looking for funding will deliver their best five-minute pitches on July 13 at Bush Auditorium at Rollins College when VC Fast Pitch enters the Orlando market for the first time.

New to Florida, the events company had its first two Sunshine State pitch competitions in St. Petersburg on Feb. 2 and in Lakeland on June 8.

The company’s founder Scott Kelly said he is confident that founders registered for the local event have real opportunity, as most of the investor panel is coming to the table looking for startups to fund. “Gary Cardone, who just invested in Node 40, just confirmed he is joining this panel. I don’t think we’ve had a pitch competition where at least one business didn’t find funding, and we’ve done them all over the country.”

Some of the other investor panelists for the July 13 event are DeepWork Capital Principal Ken Hall, Bear Creek Capital CEO Raymond Oliver, PS27 Ventures Venture Capital Analyst Nick Guerrero and angel investor Nasser Nassiri Koopaei.

Kelly also named a few of the startups pitching that day: Spot Fitness, Sober Roots, TouchBrick, Parasol Labs, US Precision Medicine and MedWatch Technologies. There’s still room for more participants: Interested companies can sign up on the VC Past Pitch Eventbrite page. Only startups that have registered and paid will gain access to the day-long event.

Describing the startups participating in the recent St. Pete and Lakeland events, Kelly said, “We're seeing a really good cross section of startups. The one thing about this part of the country is that we've got entrepreneurs who are minority entrepreneurs. We've got women entrepreneurs, we've got them in their twenties, we've got them in their sixties.”

Spot Fitness CEO Adam Ben-Evi will be at Rollins to pitch his fitness activity matching app to investors. He said this will be his company’s second VC Fast Pitch, and the one they attended in St. Pete helped them find their new CFO. This time, he hopes to find funding for his fresh concept.

“If you look in the app marketplace, all of the fitness apps out there are pretty bad. They're very fragmented and they only focus on one or two sports. Ours helps you find people in your area who like to engage in the same fitness activities or sports that you do, so it has a social core.”

Meanwhile, Kelly said he coaches startup founders to hone their pitches in advance so they can put their best foot forward when they’re in front of the investor panel.

CEO Zachary Eikenberry of Hook Security in St. Petersburg scored funding through VC Fast Pitch: “With Scott's help and through one of his Florida-based events, Hook Security was able to get in front of and meet DeepWork Capital and Florida Opportunity Fund from which we coordinated a $1 million-plus investment. Excellent event, well managed, good vibes and ultimately this pitch event resulted in a successful funding relationship.”

The most recent VC Fast Pitch event was at Catalyst Lakeland. President Christin Strawbridge was there and noted why she thinks structured pitching environments are important: “The VC Fast Pitch events create an opportunity for entrepreneurs to connect with potential mentors and investors. Whether they were pitching or attending, we have multiple founders from Catapult that have secured investment by being intentional and getting in the room at one of these events. I think finding ways to continue to network is even more important in the current fundraising climate than in the past few years, and these events are a great way to meet new people and grow your network.”