Santa Cruz Accelerates Pitch Competition Recap
Santa Cruz Works concluded the fifth cohort of the Santa Cruz Accelerates program on September 13, 2023, with its Annual Santa Cruz Startup Pitch Contest at The Seymour Marine Discovery Center.
Five local Santa Cruz startups were selected to present their pitches in person to a panel of judges and a live audience: CarbonBridge, Edily, Here for You, MoneyFlow Organization, and SwellCycle Inc. Each startup went head to head and presented their best pitch in hopes of winning the first-place prize of $5,000 from Santa Cruz Ventures, the second-place prize of $2,500 from the City of Santa Cruz, or the people’s choice of $1000 via Santa Cruz Works.
For several months throughout the program, each startup worked diligently to develop its MVP, obtain customers and funding, and perfect its pitch deck for investors. The startups showcased their solutions to the judges in hopes of not only fame, respect, and cash prizes, but the opportunity to receive an investment from one or more of the judges and Santa Cruz Ventures.
Judges Allison Steitz, Bonnie Lipscomb, Alexi Sevastopoulos, and Mark Mitchell were faced with the challenge of selecting first and second place. Here’s who they chose:
First Place: SwellCycle Inc.
SwellCycle is revolutionizing the surf industry by 3D printing sustainable surfboards using recycled materials. Their core mission revolves around minimizing environmental waste, slashing production and shipping expenses, enhancing the buying experience for surf enthusiasts, and fostering a fresh, socially engaging surfing ecosystem.
Second Place: CarbonBridge
CarbonBridge makes the lowest carbon and energy footprint renewable methanol using biocatalysis, to replace bunker oil in shipping. CarbonBridge plans to meet high-volume methanol pricing by 2040 to enable faster decarbonization of shipping.
People’s Choice: SwellCycle Inc.
Yes, they won twice! We asked the crowd to cheer for each team in order to cast their vote for their favorite startup. The cheers for Swellcycle nearly blew us into the ocean…so of course, they took home the People’s choice prize!
Thank You!
Thanks to Cruz Control for providing the tunes to kick off an action-packed day! Thanks to all the judges, mentors, partners, and Santa Cruz Works members for your support of the accelerator program. We couldn’t have done it without you!