Chamber kicks off Shark Tank competition
The stakes are high, the clock is ticking and entrepreneurs are preparing to face the sharks — not on television, but right here in Butler County.
Modeled after the longstanding television show, the Butler County Chamber of Commerce’s Butler County Emerging Entrepreneurs Shark Tank Competition invites entrepreneurs to apply for a spot in front of a panel of investors and business leaders.
The competition is months in the making. With applications currently open, the chamber is preparing to host the competition’s launch party from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at Fun Fore All Family Fun Park in Cranberry Township.
According to Jordan Grady, president of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce, the launch event is designed to generate awareness and create excitement for the official pitch event that will be held 5 to 9 p.m. April 28 at the RLA Learning and Conference Center in Cranberry.
“We will introduce the sharks, the concept and the why,” Grady said of the launch event. “Then some more generic things, how to apply and how to help. The goal is to keep the talking parts to a minimum, 20 minutes or less. The rest of the night is for conversations and fun.”
The launch event is free to attend, and will feature food, drinks and enjoyment of the amenities of Fun Fore All.
Grady could not reveal much about the sharks before the event. However, what he did disclose was that there will be six sharks who have backgrounds that qualify them for such an event.
“Four of the six are what we refer to as qualified investors,” Grady said. “What that means is they either have a history of taking equity stakes in businesses or they have a private equity part to their business, or they have verified access to capital to take stakes in other businesses.”
During the pitch event, sharks will see four 12-minute pitches from entrepreneurs, with two separate grants on the line to help their businesses grow.
Once they have seen all four pitches, the sharks will deliberate and determine their winner of the competition. The audience also will be asked to vote on their favorite entrepreneur. That winner will also receive a grant.
However, there is also an element to the event that will allow investors to offer their capital in exchange for a stake in the businesses of the four entrepreneurs.
“You don't know who will be in the audience,” Grady said. “What we have also done is we have compiled a list of private equity contacts that we have been able to figure out and they will be invited to attend the Shark Tank pitch event in April.
“You could be in a position where someone could inject capital in exchange for stakes in your business. That is the exciting part and the unknown part.”
The chamber is currently accepting applications for entrepreneurs to pitch in front of the sharks, with a handful already signed up.
Grady said the chamber is hoping for about 20 applicants. Those applicants will be narrowed down to four during a deliberations process with SCORE, which provides free mentoring and resources to small businesses.
The chamber took inspiration for the event from the Youngstown Business Incubator in Youngstown, Ohio, which helps startups and entrepreneurs launch and grow by providing essential resources.
The Youngstown Business Incubator has been hosting its own shark tank competition for the past couple years. Grady said bringing a shark tank competition to Butler County is a “good starting point” for building a case for a business incubator to be established in Butler County.
“The goal is, let’s do this and prove we have the ability to start something out of nothing, and then leverage that success for public financing to one day eventually bring a business-based incubator to Butler County,” Grady said.
Grady said there are a lot of business advantages to conducting commerce in Butler County. However, the “entrepreneurial ecosystem” is an area that needs some improvement.
“As you move into the less populated counties, it is apparent that the entrepreneurial ecosystems in those counties have no support system,” Grady said. “Outside of referring someone to SCORE, that is our only option right now. That is a need and now we are working toward a solution.”
The application to pitch your business in front of the sharks is open until Feb. 28 and can be found at www.butlercountychamber.com/butler-county-emerging-entrepreneurs-shark-tank-competition.
