Pitch Competition & Tournament

San Diego Startup Week is introducing two pitch competitions! Sixteen hand-selected startups from local colleges, universities, and startup ecosystems will compete in the Founders Fight Club and Lightweight Intercollegiate Pitch competition.

The winners will get prizes, and our all-star judging panel will crown the Lightweight and Founder Fight Club Champion.

Make sure to sign up and get in front of the Startup Week audience and expert judges!

Founders Fight Club Requirements:

Have either revenue or customers
Seed + funding

Eligibility Criteria:

The company must be doing business in SD county OR looking to move to do business in the region.

Lightweight Intercollegiate Eligibility Criteria:

Active Student at a San Diego County college or university
Student participant in a college entrepreneurship (incubator/accelerator/ecosystem/course/ bootcamp) support organization
Pre-Seed or Seed Funding

Applications are officially closed. Check out our competitors below!

Get in Front of Potential Investors

Not only will competitors be pitching in front of expert judges with years of experience in startups, tech, business development, funding, etc. they will also be pitching in front of hundreds of community members, venture capitalists, angel investors, business professionals, and more. Gain support for your startup, connect with potential investors, and network with the startup community.

Take your Startup to the Next Level

Lightweight Intercollegiate Pitch Competitors

Johann Hernandez

619 Design

Kishan Pansuria

After Hours

Nik Chekshin

ANSELM

Anh Pham

Earth Fan Surf Co.

Steffek Rainey

Evera Bottle

Paulina Lab

LockPod

Alfredo Villalba

Mabuhay Soaps

James Burdick

New Tides Distillery

Margaret Yoo

ReliaCare

Eirik Torheim

Wild Genomics

Founders Fight Club Competitors

Farzan Dehmoubed

Lotus Sustainables

Maria Marino

Panic Panties

Tosh Dutt

Electriflow Finance

Mike Ma

SixAI

Colby Tunick

ReFocus AI

Oscar Garcia

Need2Say

Adam Watson

MeCo Diagnostics

Anastasiia Romanova

Mosqitter

Lightweight Intercollegiate Judges

Cody Barbo

Founder & CEO at Trust & Will

Laura Buffard

Associate Vice President of Innovation, SDSU

Rachel Hommel

Strategic Initiatives Manager at San Diego Community Power

Founders Fight Club Judges

Adam Harris

CEO & Co-Founder of Cloudbeds

Alfonso Arana

Founder and CEO of SocialTrader.AI

Kate Nowlan

Founding Partner at Face Your Grace, Inc

Neal Bloom

Managing Partner of Interlock Capital

Stanislav Synko

CEO at Aleph One

Alumni Pitch Competition Judges

Ben Cote

Program Director at Founders Institute

Caitlin Wege

President at NuFund Venture Group

Hala Madanat

Interim VP of Research & Innovation at SDSU

Hem Suri

Founder & Managing Partner at Spark Growth Ventures

Jonathan Cogley

CEO at LogicBoost Labs

Marcus Rohlfs

Board Member

Maria Gonzalez-Blanch

Partner at Crescent Ridge

Mike Krenn

President & CEO at Connect

Oralia Alvarez

Director of Business Development

Silvia Mah

Chairwoman & Founder at Stella Co

San Diego Startup Week

Join us for the biggest startup event of the year: San Diego Startup Week! Learn from top notch speakers, discover the hottest topics in your area of expertise, pitch your startup idea in front of investors, join career development workshops and meet other startup enthusiasts!

Get Involved

Startup Week Pitch Competition & Tournament

Compete with the Best