It’s hard for early stage founders. Sometimes they have a great idea and need a little bit of capital to develop an MVP. Other times they just need a bit of capital to bridge the gap, complete a market study, begin to build community etc… The reasons are many but the results are often times similar; Either they are told they are “too early” for investment or they receive capital offers that are costly. More often than not, founders take these offers because they need the capital and a better option isn’t available.

Through our Back The Venture Pitch Competition we seek to provide a better option. Every month, we will select five founders from our applicant pool to pitch their company live on Venture Backed before our panel of judges. Our judges will select the founder who they think has the best pitch and that founders company will be awarded a $10,000.00 grant to help grow the business. Best of all, this grant never has to be paid back!

In addition, each winning founder will be eligible to participate in our annual Back The Venture Master Pitch Competition, the winner of which will be awarded a $150,000.00 investment into their business on terms that a founder can actually live with and gives the company the greatest chance to succeed. Finally, all winning founders will receive three 1 hour digital marketing consultation sessions with Sista Social free of charge!

Founders, especially in the earliest stages of their journey, need a capital option that doesn’t require them to give up equity that may been needed in future rounds or debt that could put downward pressure on their capital stack. That’s why at Venture Backed we are raising the standard; We believe that when founders win, we all win!