Over 40 Startups Pitch Top East Coast Investors on 6-Min Ski Lift

Over 40 startups and 50 top seed and series A investors converged on Mountain Creek Resort in New Jersey this week, for the 13th annual Peak Pitch event co-hosted by Newark Venture Partners and Propelify. The off-site, slope-side, overnight event is one of the hottest tickets in the east coast startup community, boasting “the ultimate elevator pitch” where founders of startups are asked to make their pitch to investors during a 6 minute ski-lift ride.

“Simply, Peak Pitch is disrupting the model for pitch events, while bringing together top innovators in every industry,” said Thomas Wisniewski, Managing Partner of Newark Venture Partners.  “We get everyone on skis, or around a card table – and suddenly the pretense drops, the guard comes down, and it becomes more about building relationships than about a singular pitch. It’s a community building event, where pitches happen organically – and  in between adrenaline rushes.”

“Besides being one of the most unique startup events in the northeast, we’re proud to give entrepreneurs an opportunity to build so many relationships with top tier investors in just 36 hours,” said Aaron Price, Founder of Propelify.

The 2-day event features a variety of high quality, fun networking opportunities such as a Texas Hold ‘em tournament, a firepit gathering, and a whiskey tasting, as well as the usual cocktails, dinner and award ceremony.  It kicked off with a custom mobile game, designed by startup 1Huddle, and made available to all attending founders to help them learn more about participating investors and prepare for an action-packed few days of networking.

Aparna Srinivasan, Founder and CEO of startup SpotOn.pet, a ride hailing services for pets and the people that love them said, “Pitch competitions can get old when you have a 3-5 minute slot and you are rotating on and off a stage or within a speed-dating set up.  Peak Pitch is unique in the way it focuses on relationships. As a founder, it’s really rare to have an extended amount of time, past the usual 30 or 60 minute meeting, to get to know an investor and figure out if you’d be a good fit.”

Participating startups, include Bby, a physician created solution for parents to buy and sell breast milk in a safe and reliable manner; TRILL a marketplace startup that converts social content into bookable travel experiences; and DocDelta, which helps healthcare companies reach out to healthcare stakeholders for sales and recruitment.  Well known VC funds, along with top early stage investors attended, including Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, New York Angels, Urban Us Capital/URBAN-X, WeWork Labs, 37 Angles, NEA, TwoSigma and more.

Suzanne Cruze, an investor and member of 37 Angelssaid, “Peak Pitch is a standout event.  It caters to the start up community, providing an innovative and fun format, and a chance to meet many new founders and colleagues in the VC space.  It’s a relaxed, collaborative atmosphere, conducive to more meaningful conversation and dynamic new relationships.”

The event was sponsored by Newark Venture Partners, Insperity, Cooley, McCarter & English, Lowenstein Sandler, VMS, Google Cloud, The Cosign Group, Goodwin Procter, WISS, Amazon Web Services, Alpha Venture Partners, TwoSigma Ventures and Startup One Stop.

About Newark Venture Partners

Newark Venture Partners is a leading early stage venture capital firm with a Limited Partner base that includes top corporate investors Audible (an Amazon Company), Dun & Bradstreet, Fidelco Realty Group, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Prudential Financial, RWJBarnabas, TD Bank, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.  Our full time sales, strategy and development teams help innovative entrepreneurs build distinctive B2B technology companies while catalyzing growth in the City of Newark. Newark Venture Partners includes a direct investment arm, investing up to $1 million in Seed and Series A companies, and our bridge-to-seed accelerator arm, NVP Labs, which invests in up to 10 companies twice a year. For more information visit Newark.VC.

‍