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2015 Blender Pitch Competition
Winners of the coveted Golden Blender Award in 2014, Pantry Labs
Wednesday June 24 th , 2015 at Stanford University
As part of the June 24th 2015 FOOD IT conference held by The Mixing Bowl and Stanford’s
FEED Collaborative, we are once again holding our business plan competition—“The Blender”.
Companies leveraging information technology for the benefit of the food and agriculture
sectors may apply to present a four-minute presentation followed by three minutes of Q&A
from a panel of established venture capitalists.
The deadline for companies to submit is Friday May 15th. On Monday June 1st companies will
be notified if they made it “on the menu” to present at the FOOD IT competition.
Companies that apply will be pre-screened by a selection panel established by The Mixing
Bowl to see if they make it “on the menu”. Screening will be based on the criteria of:
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Uniqueness of the concept
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Utilization of information technology
Potential impact on the food or agriculture sectors
Perceived attractiveness as a business and/or investment opportunity
16 companies will be put on the menu for the FOOD IT conference. Each will present a fourminute presentation followed by two minutes of Q&A between 7:45-9a the morning of the
conference in an “Appetizer Round” of presentations.
The four companies with the highest score will move to the final “The Main Course” round of
pitches that will occur just after lunch in front of the entire audience of 400-500 people in front
of a panel of experienced venture capitalists.
Winners will be announced on stage and will receive the coveted Golden Blender Award.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Fong APPLICATIO N PRO CESS
Com panies can apply by com pleting a brief survey here and subm itting a
business sum m ary overview or presentation to blender@m ixingbowlhub.com.
TIPS FOR APPLICANTS
Please be prepared to give a 4-minute presentation. We suggest a brief Power Point
presentation with no more than 6 core slides. The presentation is expected to be given by
the CEO as judges will want to evaluate the personal qualities of the company’s leader.
The following are categories we recommend you cover in your presentation.
1. Introduction
Introduce yourself, explain briefly what your product is and what makes it special. If you
have a brief attention-catching anecdote about your company or product, now’s the time
to tell it. You should be able to have a one-sentence elevator pitch in your intro.
2. Product & M arket
a. Customers First—Summarize the market opportunity for your product — include the
current size of the market, trends that are relevant, description of your target customers
and target market segments. The key is to show how well you know your market
opportunity, and how well you understand your customers and what will drive them to buy
your product.
b. Products—Describe your product offering in more detail, describing key features and
explaining how it uses IT to address the market opportunity and your customers’ needs
and pain points. You may want to include any recognition or awards your company may
have received that help validate your company.
c. Connecting Products and Customers
i. Describe your go-to-market strategy— including customer acquisition, and any existing
significant channel partners.
ii. Describe your revenue model—how do you make money?
iii. Describe your product plan—is your product fully developed? Do you see any further
iterations of the product as it matures and grows market share?
d. Competition—Describe your competition and how you maintain competitiveness. It is
useful to present a comparison graph showing where your company and your competitors
are situated with regard to key competitive factors (e.g., price, features, distribution)
3. Team
Briefly describe the management team and their qualifications for building a successful
company. Why are you rock stars? What are your accomplishments and accumulated work
experiences? Include headshots of management to make your presentation more
personable to the judges. Please also mention how large your entire team is and where
they are located.
4. Financial Results and Projections
Summarize the company’s current financial condition, your honest projections of future
performance, 3-4 projects/roles/milestones that you are looking to achieve, how much you
have raised to date and how much you expect the company will need to raise in future
financing. Please be realistic about the time it will take to build your company.
Please note that this event is not an investor pitch event and should not be
viewed as a solicitation for funding. This should be a general overview to
judge your business for the purposes of the com petition.
Please be judicious about how m uch inform ation you disclose. O ur
screening com m ittee will be discreet with your com pany inform ation but will
not be bound by any legal non-disclosure agreem ents.