Several CCNY students (Charles Ramirez, Brandon Aristy, and Erica Aita) and I went down to Amazon's Loft in Soho to attend the Capital Madness Big Pitch Event co-sponsored by CUNY Startups, Castle Placement, and Amazon. The students got a better sense of what a startup pitch event feels like and how these types of competitions are judged. It's always good to get out of the classroom and experience things firsthand that are happening in the world, especially since we are so lucky to call New York City our hometown where so many exciting things are happening everyday.
CUNY Startups partnered with Castle Placement and Amazon, to deliver a March Madness bracket style tournament where student teams compete on-line until the field is narrowed down to the top four teams. It's New York's biggest capital raising bracket tournament. The top four teams presented their business plans to a panel of investors and audience at Amazon's New York City Loft.
Judges and the audience (voting on their phone app) will selected the winner. The grand prize is free access to CPGO Network, which provides a three-month capital listing on Castle Placement’s website, 100 targeted investors with contact information, and access to CPGO (Castle Placement’s proprietary capital raising app).
Judges
Xavier Goss, Managing Director @BlackRock Brendan Reilly, Investor Mackenzie Kosut, Global Startup Advocate @Amazon Web Services Budd Goldman, Investor