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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndy-area startups and tech heavies are lining up for a competition that could pay $100,000 for just a few minutes of their time.
This summer, AOL co-founder and tech investors Steve Case announced he would host pitch competitions in five cities—including Indianapolis—during his "Rise of the Rest" bus tour. The winner in each city would win $100,000.
The 2,600-mile trip kicks off Oct. 10 and will also make stops in York, Lancaster, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Columbus, Ohio; and Green Bay and Fox River Valley, Wisconsin.
On Thursday, officials unveiled the list of 10 pitch finalists for Indianapolis. Festivities in the Circle City will take place on Oct. 12 at Union 525, 525 S. Meridian St., and will feature a fireside chat with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, the pitch competition and a happy hour celebration.
The competition has drawn some heavy-hitters in the Indy-area tech ecosystem. They include former Salesforce Marketing Cloud CEO Scott McCorkle and former Salesforce product marketing director Susan Marshall, as well as former Apparatus President Aman Brar and serial entrepreneur Christopher Day.
Here are the finalists:
Torchlite
Pitching: Susan Marshall, founder and CEO
About: Torchlite connects marketers to experts and manages campaigns to completion.
Go Electric
Pitching: Lisa Laughner, founder, president and CEO
About: Go Electric makes energy solutions that keep facilities energy resilient and sustainable.
120WaterAudit
Pitching: Megan Glover, co-founder and CEO
About: 120WaterAudit provides an online platform that manages water quality compliance.
DemandJump Inc.
Pitching: Christopher Day, co-founder and CEO
About: DemandJump Traffic Cloud is a marketing platform drives more qualified traffic to clients, grows revenue and analyzes data.
Canvas
Pitching: Aman Brar, CEO
About: Canvas manages digital communication (such as text messages) between job candidates and recruiters.
Design My Soap
Pitching: Mohammed M. Mahdi, co-founder
About: Design my Soap gives people the ability to choose what goes into their soap.
myCOI
Pitching: Kristen Nunery, founder and CEO
About: MyCOI reduces risk of costly insurance claims by verifying vendor insurance.
PoliticalBank.com
Pitching: Adam Berry, co-founder and CEO
About: PoliticalBank.com is a one-stop political platform for candidates, elected officials, and voters.
Fuzic Inc.
Pitching: Scott McCorkle, executive chairman
About: Fuzic provides in-store audio marketing for location-based businesses.
Quantifi
Pitching: R.J. Talyor, CEO
About: Quantifi is a marketing research and development platform for social ads.
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