Hatch Pitch is the competition for startups using information technology to make life better. From a global applicant pool, we select finalists who receive coaching and mentoring from startup mavens. Our annual Hatch Pitch Summit is a pitch competition where finalists present their business plans to a prestigious judging panel of corporate, angel, and venture investors who provide feedback and select winners. The well-connected audience in the room and on the web, weigh in via social media tools, making the Hatch Pitch demo day one of the most dynamic of its kind.

One of the first events at the inaugural SXSW Interactive Startup Village in 2012, Hatch Pitch was an official SXSW event each year until 2016, when we branched out to become an independent program and event. We also staged a show-stopping demo day at the inaugural TechStreet Houston conference in 2013.

We’ve enjoyed capacity attendance by an enthusiastic audience and an engaged judging panel including Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, ff Venture Capital’s John Frankel, Google’s Don Dodge, and TechStars’ Nicole Glaros.

Hatch Pitch companies have collectively raised over $340 million in funding. Thus far, 10 Hatch Pitch finalists have enjoyed an exit. Some success stories:

• 2012 winner Distil Networks raised $1.2M seed round led by Hatch Pitch judge, John Frankel of ff Venture Capital.
• 2012 winner RideScout (Moovel) acquired by Daimler in 2014.
• 2013 winner Realty Mogul dominates crowd sourced real estate investment.
• 2016 winner BrainCheck raised $1.5M from Hatch Pitch emcee, Kerry Rupp of True Wealth Ventures.
• 2017 finalist SPLT acquired by Bosch in 2018.

Hatch Pitch is run by a dedicated group of volunteers from around the USA, primarily from the Houston startup ecosystem. Each event typically involves 30+ volunteers to operate and promote the program as well as recruit, screen, coach, and judge the startup applicants.