A Valley startup took home first place in a national pitch competition showcasing business concepts that improve access to government resources.
HUUB, a Mesa-based startup co-founded by local entrepreneur Jenny Poon, was crowned the winner of CivStart’s 2024 Government Innovation Challenge and Pitchfest, held April 30 in Kansas City, Missouri. HUUB was among 10 startups that participated in the competition, including Phoenix-based Televerde.
"Our team is thrilled to receive this recognition and is excited about the opportunities it presents," Poon, CEO of HUUB, said in a statement. "Winning this competition is not only a testament to our commitment to enhancing tools for economic developers but also solidifies our role as a leader in the GovTech space."
The pitch event was hosted in collaboration with CivStart, the National League of Cities and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Participants in the pitch competition presented their business ideas to government officials from five municipalities, including Richmond and Arlington, Virginia; Miami-Dade County, Florida; Houston; and Los Altos Hills, California.
“I think that this pitch competition was very much aligned with the work that we're doing,” Poon told AZ Inno. “It was a pitch competition with a focus on economic developers and how to support the ecosystem for small businesses, and that is exactly the problem that we're solving.”
HUUB created a digital platform that connects small businesses with government resources and education. The platform also acts as an extension of municipal economic development departments, providing real-time data that allows cities to make informed decisions on allocating resources and funding based on the specific needs of their communities.
HUUB’s platform has been adopted by dozens of economic developers in Arizona — including in Mesa, Phoenix and Tucson — to centralize resources, measure impact, gather data and enhance technical assistance programs.
Pitch competition marks milestone in HUUB's growth
Poon, a longtime Valley entrepreneur and equity advocate, has helped several startup founders with pitching their businesses and judged plenty of pitch competitions.
CivStart's competition, however, was Poon’s first time pitching on-stage in front of an audience.
“I've never had to be the one on stage pitching, which is very surprising to me when I started to think about it," she said. "I was very nervous. I was worried about being able to communicate everything that was going on in my head, the work that we're doing and the impact we're making and keep it concise.”
To prepare for the competition, Poon sought guidance from HUUB co-founder Chelsea Smith and thoroughly practiced her five minute pitch ahead of the event, which was held at the Kauffman Foundation's campus, she said.
The pitch competition was a significant moment for Poon, who is very familiar with the Kauffman Foundation’s support of entrepreneurship.
“Obviously, I've heard a lot about the organization and its impact, but I've never been there before,” Poon said. “So to be there in the epicenter for entrepreneurship, pitching our startup idea to a roomful of people who are invested in helping their small business and entrepreneur communities was just a little surreal … it was one of those core memory moments, I think, in my life.”
In addition to HUUB, Poon is founder of Co+Hoots, a well-known Valley coworking center, which currently serves hundreds of entrepreneurs and small businesses.
She was also named to the National Women's Business Council, a bipartisan group that provides policy recommendations to the president, Congress and the Small Business Administration on issues of importance to female business owners and entrepreneurs.
Most recently, Poon was selected as AZ Inno’s 2024 Blazer award winner for her leadership in Valley tech ecosystem.
HUUB’s victory at CivStart’s pitch competition marks a crucial milestone for the startup by opening doors for future collaboration and growth in the public sector nationwide.
“The big thing is really getting to start conversations about a pilot with a lot of the cities that were there and were judges," Poon said. "We’re starting to have conversations with cities in Florida, Virginia and California. We just launched in California, so there’s a lot of alignment there.”
HUUB is looking forward to launching a new AI recommendation tool for its platform and aims to eventually expand nationwide.
“I'm excited for national expansion,” Poon said. “The dream is to get this to every city that needs it, especially rural communities that don't have access to these networks.”
