"When I played basketball, my competitors were Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. Who are your competitors?"
NBA legend Magic Johnson posed that question during a “Shark Tank”-like competition on Thursday, the last day of Dreamforce, where he was one of four guest judges that were tasked with awarding one startup a $200,000 prize.
Salesforce's annual startup pitch competition, dubbed Dreampitch, brought three entrepreneurs to the stage where they each had 15 minutes to sell the judges on their businesses, followed by 10 minutes of questions.
The founders came from across North America and Europe and are developing technology around logistics, sustainable seafood and habitat restoration.
Salesforce leaned into the theme of sustainability at this year's conference and selected the three “ecopreneurs” for their commitment to finding solutions to climate change-related issues.
The Salesforce Impact Fund organized the event, and partnered with the World Economic Forum's entrepreneurship and innovation accelerator, UpLink, to pick the finalists for Dreampitch.
"The selection committee was looking for a number of things. First and foremost, looking for entrepreneurs that were mission-driven and solving big challenges for climate with an innovative solution that we think could really move the needle in a meaningful way," the Impact Fund's Vice President Claudine Emeott told me. "We also looked for geographic diversity."
The Impact Fund invests in early-stage startups that are developing products and services across five industries: sustainability; workforce development and education; digital health; social sector technology; and diversity, equity and inclusion.
However, the winners of the Dreampitch competition will receive grants from Salesforce instead of equity investments from the Impact Fund.
The other three judges were Deloitte representative Dounia Senawi, Galvanize Climate Solutions partner Saloni Multani and Lowercarbon Capital partner Mia Diawara.
They grilled the founders on topics like scalability, market reach, operational costs, unit economics, brand recognition, social responsibility and competitors.
Each judge scored the startups across creativity, scalability and sustainability impact, and the audience was also invited to vote.
Ultimately, a sustainable seafood company called Urchinomics won the top prize, and the runners up were also each surprised with a $100,000 prize, as well.
"I liked that they, all of them, are making a social impact. I love that. I like that they know their customer. That they can scale their business, and they're very intelligent. There are no losers today," Johnson said before the winner was announced.
Based in the Netherlands, Urchinomics is using aquaculture to restore kelp forests by removing and sustainably farming sea urchins. It was founded by CEO Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda in 2012 and has raised $5.8 million through a Series A round, according to PitchBook.
The company is planning on launching its sustainable uni product under the brand name Sumiré.
The runners up were:
- London-based Hived, a logistics company developing software and a delivery network that aims to reduce the carbon impact of shipping.
- British Columbia-based Veritree, a cleantech company using blockchain for ecosystem restoration.
Watch below to see the moment the winner was announced.
