The Stowe Reporter called it “a cross between Shark Tank and speed dating,” which doesn’t sufficiently convey the special vibe of a small business pitch event attended by investors and businesspeople who arrive by motorcycle. The 2016 Fresh Tracks Road Pitch concludes today, as the riders finish up a four-day tour through the state of Vermont listening to business pitches by local entrepreneurs, giving feedback on the presentations, and selecting a winner at each session to go on to the final round.
Julie Moir Messervy, Principal Designer of JMMDS and the owner of Home Outside, participated in the Road Pitch inaugural tour in 2014. At that time, she was seeking advice and connections to help grow the fledgling Home Outside app and digital landscape design service. This time, she described all the progress we’ve made in the last two years—developing and improving the app, honing the online design service process, and helping homeowners across the continent attain beautiful landscapes—and asked for help taking Home Outside to the next level. There’s so much more we can do to help people, from making our landscape expertise more widely available and accessible, to developing a 3D View feature for the app.
“This is our moment!” she announced, and the investors must have agreed, because they voted her the winner of the Randolph pitch event and a finalist for the October 18th state-wide “Pitch-Off” at Champlain College. We are excited and grateful for the opportunity! To learn more about the Fresh Tracks Road Pitch, follow on Twitter @RoadPitch and @ThisIsVT.
