This time last year, Michael Goldstein debuted SwitchPitch in DC, where big companies present their biggest digital innovation challenges to a roomful of tech startups. The startups offer up solutions and the big company chooses who to work with. Michael took those events all over the East Coast, creating lots of interest in each new city. He’s now back in DC, ready for round two next week, with 15 companies like The Post, the Redskins, and Monumental Sports pitching their challenges to about 400 people at the Arena Stage. SwitchPitch now has an online submission platform.
The startups pay $95 to attend and it’s free to the presenting companies. Michael says the value is in the big company intro, which isn’t easy to come by for startups. One example of how big companies have connected with startups through SwitchPitch is Havas Worldwide hiring NYC-based startup, Signl. The large marketing communications agency wanted a dashboard that could give a snapshot of a brand’s health and Signl had the right solution.
Codelitt Incubator founder Cody Littlewood says a recent SwitchPitch event in NYC helped start a relationship with a large insurance firm. Codelitt, which started in New York, builds startups for corporations using a lean methodology for building minimal viable products. Assurant told a crowd of NYC startups that it wanted to test a warranty platform that lets consumers manage their portfolio of warranties and products online. Codelitt submitted a proposal and was chosen to test out the project. Assurant liked the work and hired Codelitt to continue moving it forward.
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