About a dozen entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas for new businesses Saturday at the Startup Jefferson City's annual Pitch It & Win It competition.
Now in its sixth year, the event kickstarted efforts by a small group of small-business owners to reach other entrepreneurs in the community. First-, second- and third-place finishers will receive a small amount of seed money, but all will receive feedback and mentorship from judges, attendees and other presenters.
Pitch It & Win It began six years ago when local business leaders, including staff members at the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce, looked for ways to find and connect the small pool of entrepreneurs in Jefferson City.
"What we were trying to do is first identify who these individuals are and lend them support up and above what was in place," said Shaun Sappenfield, manager of existing businesses for the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce. "We put together a program to engage these entrepreneurs and support them."
About 10-15 people participate each year. So far, 12 are scheduled to pitch this year.
The chamber's Startup Jefferson City initiative and Rural Missouri Inc. partner to host the event, which is from 9-11 a.m. in the Capital Event Center at 623 Ohio St. It is free and open to the public.
Each participant will have 10 minutes to present an idea and then have 10 minutes to answer questions from a panel of local business professionals.
The first-place winner will receive $2,500 in seed funding, the second-place winner will get $1,500 and the third-place winner $1,000.
Sappenfield acknowledged the sums are not life-changing but do help ideas get off the ground. The point of the event, he said, is to allow entrepreneurs to pitch business ideas to other small-business owners and to connect with other entrepreneurs in Mid-Missouri.
"It's not about the money," he said. "We want to provide the knowledge to get these people to either make a decision and move forward and help them with that decision through knowledge, or to say 'This doesn't look like a good idea.'"
Pitch It & Win It strengthened efforts to connect Jefferson City's small, but present, group of techies and entrepreneurs. In 2015, Lincoln University opened a local branch of the Missouri Small Business Technology Development Center. Part of the University of Missouri's Business Extension Development Program, the SBTDC provides assistance to startups and small businesses as they mature.
Last week, a local chapter of Kaufman Foundation-backed 1 Million Cups started holding monthly meetings on Lincoln University's campus. One Million Cups is designed to allow entrepreneurs to network with each other and pitch ideas to each other in a low-pressure environment over coffee.
Each year, the chamber also hosts its free Encouraging Entrepreneurship event, which features a day of speakers who dish out advice to people seeking it. Jefferson City's local SCORE chapter, which is part of the Small Business Administration, meets the third Wednesday of every month and also serves as a resource for people seeking advice from mentors.
In June, Gov. Eric Greitens created the Governor's Innovation Task Force to create a better environment statewide for startups by giving new businesses better access to capital and making the state more attractive to students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.