Startup Founders Get Opportunity To Pitch Kevin O'Leary For $25,000 Grant

The equity crowdfunding platform StartEngine will host its next quarterly pitch competition on April 14, 2022. Five startups will be chosen to pitch “Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary for a $25,000 prize.

The competition will be broadcast on StartEngine beginning at 12:00 PM EDT and the finalists will appear on Benzinga Live for an interview before the competition at 11:00 AM EDT.

In addition to the $25,000 prize being awarded to O’Leary’s favorite pitch, the winner will receive a one-on-one consultation with Activision and StartEngine founder Howard Marks. The audience will also choose a crowd favorite to receive a $5,000 cash prize.

Startups that want to participate in the competition have until April 7, 2022 to apply through StartEngine’s website.

The competition has been a significant milestone for past participants and winners, with many going on to raise additional capital afterward and experience tremendous growth.

The first quarterly pitch competition was hosted on September 25, 2020. O’Leary chose the social media monitoring platform LifeBrand as the winner, saying, “Your presentation had the three attributes that I think that everybody should learn from. Number one, can you explain to me in 90 seconds exactly what you do? You nailed that. Number two, why are you the right person to execute this business plan, why would your team be able to do it? And how can you accelerate and beat your competitors? You nailed that. And what I loved about your presentation that I tell everyone that pitches me is, ‘know your numbers!’”

LifeBrand recently completed an oversubscribed Series A round for $27 million, lifting its valuation to $110 million.

Another past participant was GroGuru, an innovative company providing strategic water management for farmers, which went on to raise $955,000 on StartEngine after the competition.

The company now has 10 full-time employees and grew revenue to $800,000 in 2021 from $620,000 in 2020 while doubling its SaaS subscriptions. The company’s founder and CEO, Patrick Henry, expects to more than double the company’s growth again this year. 

More details about the competition are available on StartEngine’s website.

Photo: Courtesy of StartEngine