Sponsored by San Diego startup accelerator
LogicBoost LabsDuring San Diego Startup Month in October 2020, leading organizations will come together to host a new virtual pitch competition, “Inventors & Investors,” exposing innovative science-based startups to angel investors and VCs. The competition will be organized by Tech Coast Angels - San Diego (TCA), CONNECT and the San Diego Innovation Council (SDIC) with support from other corporate and nonprofit groups as a way to celebrate the startup spirit and resilience during challenging economic times.
For the prior 13 years, TCA has partnered with organizations such as the John G Watson Foundation, CONNECT and Cox Business to host the annual Quick Pitch competition at Qualcomm attracting more than 500 attendees each year. Although Quick Pitch is postponed for 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, TCA and friends will be bringing much of the enthusiasm and resources to Startup Month with the same ultimate goal of Quick Pitch; investing in the best startups. Tech Coast Angels has invested over $4M into Quick Pitch finalists over the past 4 years alone including Echo Labs, Trust & Will, NeuraLace Medical, Lynx Bio, Eyedaptic and AgTools.
Since its inception in 2016, the SDIC has organized an annual Innovation Showcase, featuring high quality, investment ready, academic research-based startups from Southern California. The annual Innovation Showcase attracts 500 attendees from Southern California, Boston, the Bay area and abroad, including investors, large corporations, corporate and intellectual property attorneys. During the Showcase, the attendees and members of the SDIC, including TCA, local incubators, founders and others help the presenting startups advance their funding, collaboration and partnership goals. Similar to TCA and many other organizations, the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic has caused SDIC to postpone its traditional Innovation Showcase for 2020.
In recognition of our common goals and concerns, SDIC, CONNECT and TCA are pleased to announce that they are collaborating with each other to provide the community with this new landmark event as part of San Diego Startup Month that celebrates San Diego, our unique ecosystem for startup formation, support and success, and highlights the important role of research discoveries made by our San Diego academic institutions. It is with great pride that we present Inventors & Investors.
Date: Friday, October 9 2020
4 - 6 pm PST
Competition: 10 companies will be selected as finalists from a pool of startups curated by the SDIC. Each finalist will be assigned TCA coaches to help refine their elevator pitches that will be conducted before a panel of investor judges at the culminating event during Startup Month.
Prize: The 1st place winner selected by the judge panel will receive an automatic slot to pitch at one of TCA’s screening meetings in consideration for TCA funding. TCA invested over $12M into startups in 2019.
