To help expand its coaching and mentoring program to more small businesses across the country, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream announced today a partnership with Entrepreneur Media to launch the Pitch Room Wild Card Competition.
Hosted by Entrepreneur.com, the virtual competition starting November 3rd will allow small business owners to submit a product sales pitch for a chance to win a $10,000 business grant and extended mentoring from Samuel Adams.
Entrepreneurs with a food or beverage product, including craft brewers, are invited to upload a two-minute or less video of their best sales pitch to http://entm.ag/SamAdamsPitch from November 3-9, 2014. A panel of experts from Samuel Adams and Entrepreneur will judge the videos based on criteria that include pitch quality, creativity, passion and product viability.
The top 5-6 best video submissions, selected by the panel, will then post to the Entrepreneur site, and the general public will be invited to vote for their favorite from November 13-19, 2014. The small business owner who receives the most votes for his/her sales pitch will be named the Wild Card winner and receive a trip for two to participate in the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Pitch Room finals this December. Held in New York City, the finals are the culmination of the overall Pitch Room Competition, which is designed to help entrepreneurs across the country perfect the art of the sales pitch.
"The Brewing the American Dream program has great synergy with what we do at Entrepreneur, which is connect leaders to a vital thread of insights, information and resources that help businesses thrive," says Ray Hennessey, Entrepreneur.com editorial director. "We're excited to help grow this program by hosting it on Entrepreneur.com, bringing it to the millions who rely on us to learn about and participate in incredible opportunities like this one."
At the finals, the Wild Card winner will compete with fellow small business owners from across the country who won in-person Pitch Room competitions in Chicago, Denver, Boston and New York. Each Pitch Room finalist will give their best two-minute sales pitch to a panel of expert judges, including national retail buyers, an Entrepreneur editor, and Samuel Adams founder and brewer Jim Koch. The judges will then provide constructive feedback for each small business owner before choosing the best pitch. The ultimate 2014 Pitch Room winner will be awarded a $10,000 business grant and extended mentoring from Samuel Adams.
"Making an impactful sales pitch is extremely difficult and most of the time you only get one shot. I learned that 30 years ago when I started Samuel Adams and brought my beer from bar to bar and sampled bartenders and restaurant owners," said Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams. "That's why we created the Pitch Room Competition, and why we're partnering with Entrepreneur to help even more small business owners across the country improve their pitches through this new Wild Card opportunity."
