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SENT Pitch Competition

APRIL 15, 2023 AT THE SENT SUMMIT IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Investing in the Next Generation of Catholic Founders

Seeking up to 5 teams at the angel, pre-seed, and seed level to pitch their startups to a panel of seasoned investors at the upcoming SENT Summit for $5,000 in Cash Prizes and
$50,000 in-kind Prizes, Services, and Credits.

Event Sponsors

Red and black logo with the text 'Cooley' in a stylized font.
Logo of Victory Square Partners with interconnected blue, green, and yellow squares and the company name in dark green text.

Venture Partners

Pitch Criteria

Traction

Do they have sufficient traction for their stage? If seed, do they have paid contracts/strong user growth? If pre-seed, do they have pilots/beta users? Angel - do they have thorough customer discovery?

Alignment

Does the company advance Catholic values? Does the management team attempt to live out their faith in the operations of the company?

Team

Do these founders make sense for this team? Does their background contribute to the likelihood of success? Do they have the skills internally (or are experienced finding them externally) to advance the product?

Timing

Why this now? What makes this the right time to build this company?

Market

Does the market make sense for the pitch they are making? If pursuing a VC scalable model, is the TAM large enough to justify VC funding?

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Pitch Finalists

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Tania Kottoor

Founder & CEO at West X East

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Nigel Mould

Chief Executive Officer at Stackcare

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Paddy McNamara

Founder at Allera Tech

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Francisco Cornejo

Co-Founder & CEO at Storybook App

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Daniela Vega

Co-Founder & CCO at Storybook App

FAQ

  • No! We are seeking Catholic startup founders looking to live and build Spirit-led companies in both secular and faith-tech verticals. You simply have to have at least one Catholic founder on your team and tell us how you are living out your faith as a Spirit-led founder in your application to be considered.

  • We are looking for companies from the MVP to the pre-product market fit stage. You don’t have to have previously raised financing but if you have, we prefer teams that have raised no more than $1mm previously. You don’t currently have to be fundraising but should plan that your next fundraise should be no more than $2.5mm.

  • We will interview semi-finalists one month before the SENT Summit and notify finalists the week of those interviews.

  • Judges include Catholic angel investors and venture capitalists who invest at the angel, pre-seed, and seed stages.

  • At this time, this pitch competition is for for-profit startups with venture scalable roadmaps only.

  • The winning team will get a $5,000 non-dilutive cash prize, credits for various startup resources, swag, and direct opportunities with SENT’s Catholic Angels investor network.

    All finalists will get free tickets to the SENT Summit ($795 value) and up to $25,000 in AWS credits.

    All semi-finalists will get discounted tickets to the SENT Summit and Catholic Angels pitch competition.

    IrishAngels will award one finalist the opportunity to pitch to its investors, along with mentorship from Irish Angels Investors.

Go to the SENT Summit

Learn More