2013 Slow Money National Gathering Entrepreneur Showcase

Click above to view all presentations from the April 2013 Entrepreneur Showcase.

 

Five entrepreneurs line up for a critique of their presentations during the Entrepreneur Showcase.

Slow Money awarded the Denver-based company Revision International the Mamma Chia Entrepreneur of the Year award and a $50,000 cash prize during the national gathering’s entrepreneur showcase. Click here to view Revision International’s presentation, and to see the other impressive presentations of the entrepreneurs who competed for the prize.

Slow Money and the organic beverage maker Mamma Chia joined forces to create this new award. Mamma Chia donated $25,000, which was matched by funding from Slow Money’s new crowdfunding platform, Gatheround, creating a total prize of $50,000. Gatheround is a next-generation crowdfunding platform that will move capital into the full range of small businesses that are vital to healthy local economies and a more resilient food system.

Eric Kornacki of Revision International, pitches; Revision International wins.

Revision International was one of 25 small food enterprises that presented in the Slow Money’s Entrepreneur Showcase in order to compete for the $50,000 cash prize. The 25 food entrepreneurs up for the prize represented small communities from all over the U.S. and parts of Canada. The award went to the food enterprise that best demonstrates outstanding leadership in the local food movement. Revision International is a Denver-based community-owned food cooperative that aggregates, markets, and distributes food grown and processed by low-income families in Southwest Denver. “Receiving this award was a huge validation for the mission-based work that we are doing to solve the fundamental problems of poverty and access to food,” says Eric Kornacki, executive director and co-founder. “The $50,000 prize will be huge for this community.”

An additional $60,000 was raised for Revision International by investors who met at an Earthworm Angel event held May 1 in Boulder, the day following the gathering. This raise fulfilled Revision International’s full ask.

The winning Entrepreneur was determined by an online voting competition, ballots cast by attendees at Slow Money National Gathering and the jury for the Entrepreneur Showcase, composed of Slow Money Board and Steering Committee members, Tasch, and Janie Hoffman, CEO and founder of Mamma Chia.

Janie Hoffman, far right, who sought funding for her beverage company Mamma Chia at the second Slow Money National Gathering, created this year’s Mamma Chia Entrepreneur of the Year award. Jim Gerritsen, president of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, sits to her left.

A second prize was spontaneously conceived at the national gathering by Janie Hoffman of Mamma Chia, who said she’d offer a match of up to $10,000 from audience members. The audience came up with $4,100, using the Gatheround funding tool that Slow Money introduced at the gathering, so Mamma Chia matched that, for a total of $8,200. This “People’s Choice” award and cash gift was given to Hayden Flour Mills of Phoenix, AZ.

Gary Nabhan, left, MacArthur Fellow, author, and professor at the University of Arizona, sits next to Emma Zimmerman, of Hayden Flour Mills, winner of the People’s Choice award.

Slow Money members have catalyzed the flow of more than $25 million into 200 food enterprises thus far. Mamma Chia itself was a featured enterprise on the Slow Money stage in 2010, making the award especially meaningful, and demonstrating the success of the showcase format.