.TECH and Startup Grind join forces to help entrepreneurs get their idea off the ground

Pitch.tech

While the annals of TechCrunch are often dominated by multi-million dollar funding rounds, it can be easy to forget that all of those companies had to start somewhere, and some of them got a little push to help them get off the ground. While funding rounds usually start at the pre-Seed or Angel stage, it’s important not to overlook the idea-stage, the point where entrepreneurs have an idea but haven’t executed on it yet.

The really interesting part about idea-stage companies is that it doesn’t take millions of dollars to make an impact, thousands of dollars can move the needle and help the founders get their idea off the ground. Idea-stage funding is an area that I think needs more love so I’m always excited to see people supporting entrepreneurs at such a formative time.

So, I was pretty excited to see that .TECH and Startup Grind had joined forces to offer a pitch competition for idea-stage startups, here’s the dets:

.Tech Domains, the leading new domain extension for the tech ecosystem, recently announced a nationwide pitch competition in partnership with Startup Grind, the world’s largest community of startups, founders, innovators, and creators, for idea-stage entrepreneurs to win $10,000 in equity-free funding and over $100,000 in startup benefits.

The virtual competition (www.pitch.tech) comes as innovation and digitization fueled by the COVID-19 crisis continues to surge across industries and power a startup boom, causing global VC funding to reach an all-time high in the first quarter of 2021 with $125B invested. With just over 3% of that global funding going to seed stage entrepreneurs, .Tech Domains and Startup Grind are coming together to provide a platform that empowers idea-stage entrepreneurs at the start of their journey while minimizing the common barriers and hurdles that are often present during the early stages of building a startup.(Source – Radix)

I think this is a great idea and I really like the fact that they are making the $10,000 funding equity-free. At such an early stage taking equity is tricky since the valuation is often super low which means you could end up taking a meaningful chunk of equity for a small amount of money. At this stage I think non-dilutive funding is a lot better for the founders and really makes this pitch competition a no-brainer for anyone looking to get their idea off the ground.

Along with $10,000 in non-dilutive funding startups also get $100,000 in benefits so the combo here is pretty powerful. Congrats to .TECH and Startup Grind on the collab, love the idea and I look forward to following along with the competition!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton