A quick-paced pitch competition Wednesday saw big wins for political tracking startup FastDemocracy and child therapy resource TheraWe Connect, with more than $1 million in prizes awarded between 10 young companies.
“Our sponsors felt a funding head-rush like a speeding train — throwing money everywhere,” said Michael Williamson, an IP attorney for Polsinelli, one of the lead supporters of the event.
Prizes included $139,000 in cash and business resource services ($70,000 in tech support from Kansas City talent development startup Full Scale) and up to $1 million in Amazon AWS Activate Credits split between the 10 firms.
The invite-only event at The American restaurant saw prizes awarded by “land sharks,” who each give $1,000 to companies of their choice, but take no equity in exchange. Companies also were surprised by each winning access to an online curriculum for one-year from General Assembly, as well as a launch-period for a hot desk membership to WeWork.
“Kansas City startup investors sold-out our event this year – not surprising with the wave of funding anticipation, marketing hype, along with prior year’s success. Third year is a charm!” said Karen Fenaroli, Pure Pitch Rally founder. “We broke the ceiling of entrepreneurial energy and corporate collaboration. We broke the investor’s bank with our $1,139,000 rally purse of spot cash and funded tech services. What a win for our tech startup ecosystem.”
Pure Pitch awardees and their land sharks included (each land shark represents at least $1,000):
Sara Baker, FastDemocracy ($7,000)
- Pam Berneking, chief commercial officer, CommunityAmerica Credit Union
- Darcy Howe, founder and managing director, KCRise Fund
- Ryan Merket, Amazon BD Startups
- Dan Schulte, managing partner, B12 Capital Partners
- Jim Wadella, founder and managing member, Core Catalysts
- Jack Bowling’s Partner Group, Stinson Leonard Street (including Scott Claasen, Steve Cosentino, David Barnard, and James Cronin)
- People’s Choice Award (voted by audience)
Kirby Montgomery, TheraWe Connect ($7,000)
- Adam Blake, CEO, ZEGO
- Terry Dunn, DD Ranch Ventures
- Chuck Gessler, CFO, Safe Fleet
- Rachel Hack Merlo, community manager, Google Fiber
- Lesa Mitchell, managing director, Kansas City Techstars
- David Seay, partner, KPMG
- Jack Bowling’s Partner Group, Stinson Leonard Street (Steve Cosentino, David Barnard, and James Cronin)
Brian Kearns, HipHire ($4,000)
- Scott Hedrick, CEO, Pro Athlete Inc.
- Jig Patel, chief technology officer, FISERV
- Scott Claassen, attorney, Stinson Leonard Street
- Jack Bowling’s Partner Group, Stinson Leonard Street (Steve Cosentino, David Barnard, and James Cronin)
Rhonda Dolan, Üdo ($4,000)
- Quinton Lucas, Kansas City, Missouri city councilman and 2019 mayoral candidate
- Keith Molzer, general partner, Flyover Capital
- Jason Moxness, market president, Core Bank
- Andrea Sellers, partner, Stinson Leonard Street
Lauren Lawrence, Stenovate ($3,000)
- Greg Deitch, president, Trabon Solutions
- Greg Kratofil, chair, Polsinelli’s Technology Transactions and Data Privacy group
- Steve Swartzman, co-founder, C3 Capital
Erin Little, Rx Hackers ($2,000)
- Jill Groebl, senior vice president, Client Services, Intouch Solutions
- Teresa Martin, EVP/producer, Lockton Companies
Carlanda McKinney, Raaxo ($1,000)
- Angela Hurt, CEO, Veracity Consulting, Inc.
Aubrey Young with the startup Fluence also presented, but was not awarded funding in the rapid-fire Pure Pitch competition.
Sponsors and land sharks Matt Watson, CEO, Stackify and FullScale, and Matt DeCoursey, Co-founder of Full Scale, awarded an additional $25,000 to both TheraWe Connect and Stenovate.
Julia Luetje, Storm Sleeper
In a surprise announcement, the duo also donated $10,000 to both Donald Hawkins, founder of the white label, SaaS platform CitySmart, and Julia Luetje, a fifth-grade Barstow School student from Leawood, who was selected earlier this year as Frito-Lay’s $250,000 Dreamvention grand prize winner for her invention Storm Sleeper.
Check out more photos from the event below.
