Coming August 1 – Road Pitch 2018

Photo by Bob LoCicero

Application deadline: July 9, 2018 at 5 p.m.

Strolling of the Heifers and Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation invite you to attend the 2018 FreshTracks Road Pitch at the River Garden on Wednesday, August 1 at 3:00 P.M.

The Road Pitch, a gang of motorcycling business investors and advisors, is stopping in Brattleboro on the afternoon of August 1 to hear funding pitches from local businesses that are ready to scale up.

This is the fifth annual Road Pitch. From Monday, July 30 through Thursday, August 2, more than 40 motorcycle riders will hit the roads of Vermont and stop in 8 towns to listen to at least 50 entrepreneurial pitches. Their goal is to find exciting opportunities for investment.

Photo by Bob LoCicero

The Brattleboro stop will be at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden (157 Main Street), organized by Strolling of the Heifers and the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. Additional stops are scheduled for Essex Junction, Hyde Park, Lowell, Bennington, Rutland, St. Johnsbury and Barre.

At each stop, the riders will award a $500 Riders’ Choice Prize plus a Vermont Teddy Bear “biker bear” to one pitcher in each of the 8 communities. More importantly, for the participating entrepreneurs, the Road Pitch is an opportunity to:

Tighten up their business model and scale-up plan
Get coaching on honing their business pitch presentation
Develop connections to a network of funders and advisors

Brattleboro’s 2017 Road Pitch Winner, Bob Hausslein, Sugar Bob’s Finest Kind

In addition, the local winners will have a chance to compete at a statewide final event in October for over $4,000 in cash prizes.

Five local entrepreneurs will be selected to compete in the pitch competition. Before the event, finalists will have had several coaching sessions, including “dry runs,” so that they will have the best possible pitch ready for the motorcyclists.

Each pitch is strictly limited to seven minutes, followed by an eight-minute question and answer period.

“The ride promotes Vermont as a terrific place to do business and as a perfect motorcycling destination with lots of scenic twisting roads, picturesque small towns, and plenty of locally sourced food and beverage,” said Cairn Cross, co-founder of FreshTracks Capital.

Cross founded the Road Pitch in 2014. This is the fourth year the tour will be stopping in Brattleboro.

“I gathered together close to 30 other founding riders that year, and we proved the Road Pitch concept by riding 500 miles through Vermont, stopping in various towns and listening to more than 30 pitches.”

Road Pitch is generously sponsored by Vermont Department of Economic Development, Champlain College, and Champlain College’s BYOBiz program, Burlington Bytes, Key Bank, Gallagher Flynn and Company, Moulton Law Group, Social Sentinel, Vermont Teddy Bear, Merritt-Merritt, Vermont Community Loan Fund and EMBOLDIA.

The Brattleboro stop is sponsored by Vermont Community Loan Fund.