I’m excited and honored to announce that we won the Early Stage Audience Favorite Award with a $3,000 cash prize and have advanced to the finals with a chance to pitch at this year’s Bend Venture Conference (BVC). BVC is the Pacific Northwest’s largest angel conference and for over two decades, BVC has served as a pillar of Oregon’s robust entrepreneurial culture, playing a pivotal role in evolving and growing the startup ecosystem across the Pacific Northwest. Throughout the conference, attendees hear company pitches, participate in multiple networking activities and listen to inspiring presenters from across the United States.
We pitched last week in the semifinals against nine other amazing teams down in Bend at the Road to BVC Central Oregon Pubtalk hosted by Economic Development of Central Oregon (EDCO). This high-energy entrepreneurial event showcased the BVC Early Stage semifinalists with three-minute pitches and no slides to a live crowd of over 200 attendees. The audience, along with an expert panel of judges, voted to decide which companies advance to present at the Tower Theatre for the 21st annual Bend Venture Conference on October 17-18, 2024. In addition to influencing which companies advance to the BVC stage, the audience vote determined Rose City Robotics received the $3,000 cash award, courtesy of Washington Trust Bank.
Watch the Rose City Robotics Pitch
Audience Favorite Award
We are thrilled to take home this $3,000 cash prize and the Early Stage Audience Favorite Award. We will join four other early stage teams including Fordje, Prophetic, The Offer Haus and Howl at the Spoon at the Bend Venture Conference in October to face off in the finals so please come watch!
Reflecting on the event, Jon Stark, CEO of EDCO, said, “The energy at PubTalk was incredible, and it was amazing to see such innovation and drive from these entrepreneurs. We can’t wait to see them take the stage at BVC and showcase the transformative potential of their companies.”
A big thank you to Josh Carter and Ben Parish from Upstart Collective for sponsoring our BVC application, Washington Trust Bank for the generous $3,000 prize, Bend Venture Conference, EDCO as well as the judges Don Myll, Lisa Hovey, and Jenn Lynch and the audience for their support!
