A Portland-based charter school took home first prize Wednesday night at the Reser Center for the Performing Arts in Beaverton for the eighth annual PitchBlack event.
Holla School, a K-3 charter school sponsored by the Reynolds School District that offers culturally responsive education for BIPOC students, was voted as the best pitch by the sold-out audience and awarded $30,000.
PitchBlack spotlights entrepreneurs with companies or new ideas who pitch those concepts to an audience. Organizer Stephen Green previously said the event that started in 2015 is as much of a pitch event as it is an entertainment one.
“(This) is the opportunity for a community to show out and reframe what it is to be a Black business. People get in the room and have no idea the breadth of different things Black businesses are doing. Whether they (go on to) make billions, that isn’t what this event is about,” Green previously said.
Since its first iteration, PitchBlack has expanded into other cities, awarded tens of thousands of dollars to dozens of startups and garnered major event sponsors like Nike and Jordan Brand, Oregon Community Foundation and software maker Autodesk.
Second place this year, and $20,000, went to Oakland-based ABC Travel Network, which makes The Travel Green Book, a book and app that helps people find Black communities and Black-owned businesses while traveling. Third place ($10,000) was awarded to Salem-based Flourish Spices & African Food, which offers event catering and workshops.
This year’s event marked the first time that pitchers were chosen from applications. The group received more than 200 applications for the event, a level of interest that even surprised organizers. More than 100 applicants were from out-of-state.
