By chumming the waters with $125,000, SeNSE’s Shark Tank–style Pitch Night that’s taking place during Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week has netted about four times as many applicants as the group’s previous Pitch Night events have.
“With $125,000 minimum up for grabs, yeah, that gets people’s attention,” says Terry Jones, SeNSE board member and chair of the Programming Committee. “Obviously, the big difference this year is the money the angel investors are putting up. These are well-known local entrepreneurs who are very successful, and they’ve committed to taking a serious look at these pitches; and we truly hope it turns into some real investment.”
SeNSE is currently evaluating the applicants and plans to announce at the end of the month the five entrepreneurs or businesses selected to compete at the Nov. 15 event, which will take place at L’Auberge Casino & Hotel at 7 p.m.
The BREW-edition pitch competition is SeNSE’s 15th, and the first in which money is at stake. Typically, Jones says, the event draws about 10 applicants. Not only has the money drawn more interest, it has drawn interest from farther away. This year, three applications came in from outside Louisiana—from as far away as New York and Florida. Under the rules of the competition, any entrepreneur who wins pitch money must relocate to the Capital Region to spend the investment.
The five entrepreneurs who are offering up the funds—and who will also serve as judges—are Todd Graves, Raising Cane’s founder and CEO; Joe Agresti, president and co-owner of Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge; Kevin Couhig, founder and CEO of Source Capital; Lane Grigsby, founder and chairman of the board of Cajun Industries; and Mike Wampold, the founder and owner of Wampold Companies. The investors have the right to invest in one, a few, all or none of the ideas pitched to them.
“I don’t want to single out any of the applicants here, but I can tell you there’s some very fundable deals in this group,” Jones says.
Tickets for the Pitch Night event will be limited to fewer than 300 and are $10 each. You can get yours here; and check out the full slate of BREW events happening in the Capital Region during the week of Nov. 11-17 here.
