Watch 5 Founders Pitch to Mr. Wonderful!
Winner takes home great prizes from our sponsors on July 12th at 9am PT / 12pm ET. Tune in Live on LinkedIn and YouTube.
SPONSORED BY
StartEngine* is back with its quarterly live pitch competition with renowned host of Shark Tank and pitch judge—Kevin O’Leary (aka Mr. Wonderful). StartEngine will invite its community of 1,000,000+ founders, investors and fans to watch 5 companies pitch live. One company will walk away with:
- A 1:1 business consultation with Activision & StartEngine founder Howard Marks
- Plug and Play: Playbook onboarding to the Plug and Play (PnP) digital innovation platform with access to business development opportunities & events, a Mentorship session with a PnP Ventures/Investment Partner, & 6 months of desk space at the PnP’s headquarters
- Forecastr: 75% off first-year subscription
- Zendesk: 6-months free & 15% off a 1-year contract after the 6 months
- Justworks: 3-months free
- Hawke Media: Free expert consultation and a complimentary Hawke AI Audit, Hawke’s AI platform used to compare performance against other businesses in the same industry across Google and Meta Ads & Google Analytics
How to Apply
1) Submit your company info on this page.
2) Our team will review your company info & inform you if selected to pitch.
3) Prepare your pitch deck before the event.
4) Pitch LIVE to Mr. Wonderful and viewers.
Deadline to apply will be June 28th, two weeks before the live event.
Companies actively raising on the StartEngine funding portal are not eligible to compete.
*Competition hosted by StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc.
Our Sponsors
Plug and Play wants to build a smart future. To achieve that, they’re building a unique ecosystem that connects change-makers and leading organizations.
Their network consists of 30,000+ startups, 500+ world-leading corporations, and hundreds of venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies across multiple industries. Together with their partners, they are creating a unique ecosystem designed to develop and implement the technologies of tomorrow.
Benzinga has been breaking actionable financial news and curating high-quality financial datasets since 2009.
The Benzinga team gives investors access to actionable, jargon-free, market-moving news and insightful financial data. Through their in-house content and established partner network, Benzinga covers information surrounding the entire financial world, from standard financial content to alternative investments, and other trending topics.
Forecastr is an online software that helps founders forecast revenue, predict runway, understand their numbers, and get funded.
Forecastr has a team of experts that work hand-in-hand with you to build your financial model. They’ll be with you every step of the way as you raise money, offering free online support or dedicated analyst packages for a reasonable fee.
Hawke was founded on the idea that every modern business needs a CMO-level expert to lead its digital marketing efforts. That’s why they create customized, performance-driven solutions around your unique business, helping you to launch, scale, and invigorate your brand. Bringing you the resources of a full-service agency with the attention of an in-house team, they’re shifting the marketing paradigm by putting client success ahead of their own.
Justworks makes it easier to run a business and helps teams lead happy and healthy lives. They do this with a simple and friendly platform, expert support from real people when it’s needed, and access to corporate-level benefits that ensure people feel secure and valued.
Justworks handles the nitty-gritty of payroll, benefits, compliance, and HR, so you have more time to learn, grow, and seek something worthwhile. Work fearlessly, pursue your passion, and do more of what matters. They’ve got your back.
The Startup Stack is a startup perk network. It was founded by a group of individuals in the SaaS space that have worked to build startup programs at other companies or have founded their own businesses. Recognizing the need for founders to access solutions to help them scale for as little money as possible, they created the Startup Stack to collect the best business-critical vendor perks in one place, and make those discounts accessible to founders at no cost.
Early-stage startups can access over $937,000 in discounts on business-critical solutions from over 80 vendors. Offers are ALWAYS FREE for founders to access.
Zendesk makes customer service better. They build software to meet customer needs, set your team up for success, and keep your business in sync.
Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds software designed to improve customer relationships. As employees, they encourage each other to grow and innovate. As a company, they roll up their sleeves to plant roots in the communities they call home.
Their software is powerful and flexible, and scales to meet the needs of any business. Even yours.
Hawke Media is a proud returning partner-sponsor of the StartEngine Shark Pitch offering one full month of Hawke’s strategy session that includes:
- Defining your brand, messaging, and target markets with an overview of recommended channels.
- Audit of your current operation, marketing activities, and marketing funnel.
- Alignment of your site, measurement of various marketing channel measurement tactics, and Google Analytics to ensure full understanding of efficacy across the marketing landscape.
Since its inception, Hawke Media has been committed to providing business and brands with an expert C-level marketer to orchestrate and guide full-funnel digital marketing strategy and efforts.
HubSpot offers a complete CRM platform with all the tools and integrations you need to grow better — whether you want to increase leads, accelerate sales, streamline customer service, or build a powerful website. They’re powerful alone, but even better when used together.
- Marketing Hub
- Sales Hub
- Service Hub
- CMS Hub
Indiegogo’s crowdfunding campaigns are where new and groundbreaking products take flight, sometimes long before they hit mainstream availability. With thousands of campaigns launching every week, there’s great tech, design, and much more around every corner — often with limited-time perks and pricing for the earliest backers. Before it’s everywhere, it’s on Indiegogo.
Their mission is to empower people to unite around ideas that matter to them and together make those ideas come to life.
TriNet is a professional employer organization that provides small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) with full-service HR solutions tailored by industry. To free SMBs from HR complexities, TriNet offers access to human capital expertise, benefits, risk mitigation and compliance, payroll and real-time technology. From Main Street to Wall Street, TriNet empowers SMBs to focus on what matters most—growing their business.
With over 30 years of expertise and over 17,500 clients, TriNet’s mission is to power business success with extraordinary HR, rallying around a shared vision of improving humanity through business growth and innovation.
"StartEngine has emerged as a leader... A fantastic opportunity for small businesses in a really trying time."
KEVIN O’LEARY
Investor, Shark & StartEngine Strategic Advisor
Words From Our Finalists
Total raised
Our past finalists have collectively raised over $95M.
"During the Shark Pitch we were in the middle of a Seed Round and we ended up oversubscribing by 100% valuing the company at $7M. Now we’re closing a 20M+ Series A Raise valuing us at $130M+!"
"The Shark Pitch completely changed the trajectory of our company!"
"We received terrific exposure to a broad audience of retail investors."
F.A.Q.
How do I participate?
Submit your application to pitch on this page. Our team will review and notify you for an interview if selected. If selected as one of the five finalists, you’ll prepare a three minute pitch deck to present to Mr. Wonderful the day of the event!
What are the costs to participate?
This event is completely free and is not pay to play. StartEngine DOES NOT take any equity in your company in exchange for your participation. We do this event for fun and to celebrate great founders.
Will I actually talk to Mr. Wonderful?
Yes, all five finalists will pitch to Kevin O’Leary live for a chance to win.
What types of businesses do you select as finalists?
We consider all early stage, U.S. based companies across all industries.
What type of information is required to apply?
There is a short form to submit on this page that asks for basic company information like contact, previous funding, ARR and a link to your pitch deck.
How will I know if I’ve been selected?
We will notify all selected finalists a couple of days after the deadline to apply in the form of an email from our team. There is no need to message us in the meantime, but we thank you for enquiring.
I received a Zoom webinar message after I submitted my application. Have I been chosen?
No, this is an automatic Zoom message that confirms that you’ve been enrolled to watch the event. Our team will contact you via email if you’ve been chosen to pitch.
How will I receive my prizes?
Introductions will be made to each sponsor team, so you may redeem each sponsor prize.
Any finalist that chooses to pitch live will be subject to a thirty-day cooling-off period before being eligible to launch an offering on the StartEngine funding portal.
This competition is unaffiliated with Shark Tank and any finalist that chooses to pitch live will not be eligible to pitch on Shark Tank according to the show’s application rules.
KEVIN O’LEARY IS A PAID SPOKESPERSON FOR STARTENGINE. READ THE 17(b) DISCLOSURE HERE.
Why StartEngine
Successful Raises
StartEngine has hosted more than 550 successful raises on its platform.
Prospective Investors
StartEngine has a community of over 1,000,000 users
Raise capital on our platform.
StartEngine is one of the largest platforms in the world for companies to find investors and raise capital.
What Founders Are Saying
“”I like the ease of use of StartEngine and that I didn’t have to handhold the investors through the process because of how smooth the platform is. It’s like going to Amazon and buying something, but you’re investing in a company.”
— Dawn Dickson, Founder & CEO, PopCom
— Ron Wilson, Co-Founder & CEO, Hylete
“Working with StartEngine has been great. I’m amazed by how accessible everyone is, including all the way up to the CEO, Howard.”
— Jesse Woolmer, President & COO, CannCo Brands
How Raising
Capital Works
Application
StartEngine reviews every company application internally to determine whether they meet our compliance and eligibility requirements and are a fit for equity crowdfunding. If it's a good match, we move forward!
Story
Tell your story in your own words. Build and design your campaign page to attract investors. Our creative team will help you!
Set your own terms
What's your valuation? What kind of security do you want to sell and how much of it? it's all up to you.
Legal
We request corporate documents like Articles of Incorporation and Board Resolutions to approve your fundraise.
Financial
You have 2 options:
Save on upfront cost and self-certify your financials to raise up to $107K
Use one of our low-cost, preferred CPA vendors and get a 2-year independent financial review done in order to raise up to $1.07M from the start.
Don’t worry — if you start with self-certified financials, you can always commission the financial review during your offering in order to raise more than 107K.
Recent
Success Stories
Reg CF
ElliptiGo
ElliptiGO was started to solve a problem – how to enable people to get the benefits of running without suffering from the impact. This was a very personal problem for ElliptiGo's co-founders, both Ironman triathletes with a shared love of running.
Raised
$1M
Investors
532
Valuation
$29M
Reg CF
Farm.One
Farm.One grows rare produce in New York City urban vertical farms using hydroponics and LED lighting. Farm.One grows and sells rare herbs, edible flowers, and micro-greens (very young crops). All of the products are rare, high-quality, 100% pesticide-free and delivered same day.
Raised
$471K
Investors
312
Valuation
$7M
Reg CF
Waverly Labs
Using the latest technologies in speech recognition, machine translation and the advances of wearable technology, our smart earpiece allows wearers to speak different languages but still clearly understand each other. Simply put, when one person speaks, the other hears it in their language.
Raised
$1.07M
Investors
1,297
Valuation
$12.5M
Platform Features
Onboarding:
Dedicated Account Manager
You receive a dedicated account manager to help prepare your offering, which will then be reviewed by StartEngine’s compliance team.
Drag-n-Drop Page Builder
Build a fun campaign page to convince investors to love your company as much as you do.
Regulation CF Filings
StartEngine will file all the necessary paperwork to accept funds under Reg CF, so you can get back to what matters most.
Investments:
Rolling Fund Withdrawals
Withdraw funds when you’re ready to invest into your company or fundraising campaign.
Credit Card Investments
On StartEngine, companies can accept investments via credit cards, as well as ACH, bank wire, and cryptocurrency.
Campaign Perks
StartEngine encourages incentivizing investors by offering perks to investors. This could be a lifetime discount, a product, or even a time-based incentive.
Dashboard:
Real-Time Analytics
Use the StartEngine analytics dashboard to view all investment data, from visitor conversion rates to investment history.
Investment History
View and follow the number of investors and followers your campaign has week over week.
Investor Information
Access your investor community’s contact information for updates or promotional purposes.
Featured In
Need Capital? Get Started.
Join more than 350 companies who have launched on StartEngine.
KEVIN O’LEARY IS A PAID SPOKESPERSON FOR STARTENGINE. READ THE 17(b) DISCLOSURE HERE.
