Pitch Night

Communities are built on small business and cannot hope to survive for long unless the business
communities are regularly refreshed by the introduction of new members. These new members
introduce to that community innovative ideas and best practices, creating a culture that organically
evolves and adapts to reflect what is practical and competitive in that environment. In our country’s
commercial centers, this is a naturally occurring process- those that want to start businesses gravitate to
New York, Silicon Valley, and Chicago because they know that doing so will place them in close proximity
to markets, logistics hubs, and pools of talent. However, Mackinac County does not have that same set
of advantages.

In order to compensate, we must, as leaders in our communities, act to foster our business
communities in any way that we can. One way we can do this is by making the choice to actively
cultivate the potential we have in our communities. We all know people who have a great business idea
but need some kind of support, financial or technical, to motivate them and help them get started. It
goes without saying that this support could also benefit new business owners, who may have started
their small business well prepared and with the best intentions but then been confronted by unforeseen
challenges and difficulties.

We propose to remediate this by hosting a pitch night on October 23 rd at 6PM, at Little Bear
Arena in St. Ignace, an event that will give an opportunity to people who own, or want to own, a small
business to present their vision for business to a panel with the opportunity to win cash prizes. These
cash prizes would then be used to help them realize their vision, thereby helping them develop or
improve their business when that might not otherwise have been possible.

However, fostering and celebrating a culture of entrepreneurship will require the support of the
entire community. We hope that you will support this effort, either as an event sponsor or a table
sponsor. If you are interested in having your organization sponsor this event, please complete the
enclosed form and submit it to Mackinac Economic Alliance- the MEA is a 501(c)(3), and will return to
you a receipt so that your contribution can be noted on your taxes.

If you have any questions, please contact Alex Iseri at (906)430-4774 or
iserialex@mackinaceconomicalliance.org.

Pitch Night Application

Pitch Night Look Book