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List of 100 pitch competitions and accelerators

Author

Jerry Teng
May 23, 2023

Happy Friday!

6 weeks ago, our team joined Buildspace, a 'school for builders’ that raised $10 mil led by A16z.

We were part of their S3 competition, where 7500 teams competed for $100,000.

Result: WE MADE TOP 32!

Then last Sunday, we competed in the top 32 for $100k. The first two rounds consisted of a crowd vote. Here’s what happened…

In round 1, we faced a startup that recruits students to consult startups. We pulled away in the final second and won by 0.4%.

In round 2, aka Sweet 16, we were down by a couple of % for the whole minute, until the last second, where we TIED. Just look at the reaction in the chat. I think I broke my chair watching the stream.

After the crowd vote, Buildspace picked 4 winners out of the 10 teams that made it. We did not get picked but we are forever grateful for the opportunity to participate.

From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank everyone for supporting us on this journey and voting last Sunday ❤

We want to give back by sharing this spreadsheet we have built. It’s a list of 100 pitch competitions and accelerators. If you are an early stage founder, applying to these can be one of the most effective ways to get capital in this VC winter.

Click the link below to access the spreadsheet.

Curated list of 100 pitch competitions and accelerators you should apply to.

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🤟 What Your Classmates Are Building

What? - Webflow for the backend

Why? - Webflow made it possible for anyone to make a beautiful website without code. Fastgen wants to do that for the backend with drag and drop workflows and one-click APIs.

  • 📍Industries: Dev Tools, SaaS

  • 🚀 Stage: Pre-seed

  • 💵 Funding: $500,000 (backed by YC)

  • 🛠 Founded: 2023

  • 😎 Founders: Mike Mahlkow (USC), David Nordhausen (USC)

Bonus: The founders of Fastgen previously founded Blair, an income-sharing agreement platform for students, and raised $100 mil.

What? - A data analytics tool that helps you visualize and make sense of VC investment data.

Why? - Navigating through VC data can be challenging to understand and extrapolate insights from

  • 📍Industries: Big Data, Business Intelligence, FinTech

  • 🚀 Stage: Seed

  • 💵 Funding: $4,170,000

  • 🛠 Founded: 2020

  • 😎 Founders: Chris Shen (UT Austin), Eric Woo (UC Berkeley)

What? - Increase employee engagement through rewards programs, gamified contests, perks, and more.

Why? - Better employee engagement can boost company culture and morale and increase productivity

  • 📍Industries: Employee Benefits, Employment, Human Resources

  • 🚀 Stage: Seed

  • 💵 Funding: $6,700,000

  • 🛠 Founded: 2014

  • 😎 Founders: Sourabh Deorah (UCLA), Smiti Deorah (UCLA)

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