While “pitchfests” are an increasingly popular way for the owners of Silicon Valley startup technologies to pull from a wealth of expertise and investor resources to get off the ground, no such event has ever been scheduled in Morgan Hill.
Until now.
On June 2, a group of South County investors and sponsors will host the “Disrupt Forum” at Specialized Bicycle Components. The theme of the pitchfest is “Innovation Goes Outside,” with a focus on pitches from companies with new ideas in the areas of sports, agri-business, environmental technology and others.
Disrupt Forum is open to the public, with a full day of activities and networking scheduled, beginning at 9 a.m. Pitches, which must be submitted by April 21 to be considered in the pitchfest competition, will be judged by a panel of high-tech experts and investors, according to Tracy Hutcheson, one of the investors and a Silicon Valley high-tech veteran.
The forum will also allow plenty of opportunities for startup owners to network with the experts and investors who know the ropes of how to succeed in the region’s competitive high-tech industry. Also on the schedule are speakers and discussion sessions, which will range from IoT (Internet of Things) to wearable sensors to Virtual Reality technology.
But the Morgan Hill pitchfest will be much more than that, as organizers hope it will mark the beginning of an ongoing effort to bring more high-tech innovation to Morgan Hill and South County.
“We intend to use this event as a beachhead to create a center of gravity shift to the South Bay to sponsor and grow an incubation community in Morgan Hill,” Hutcheson said. “We want tech to grow outward from the South Bay and establish a strong foothold here.”
An “incubator” in Silicon Valley parlance is loosely defined as a company or group of small companies that helps even smaller startups gain a foothold by providing expertise, resources and services such as management training or office space.
Morgan Hill City Councilman Rich Constantine said the Disrupt Forum and its long-term goals seem to align with the city’s ongoing efforts to attract more industry and commercial activity to town.
In the short term, Constantine said he hopes the June 2 pitchfest will produce the “next Netflix,” which started as a tiny startup. Not only has Netflix ballooned into a multi-billion dollar company since it was founded in Los Gatos, but it has become an ingrained part of that community. Constantine said he would like to see something like that come out of the Disrupt Forum for Morgan Hill.
Hutcheson noted the closest thing Morgan Hill has to Netflix is Specialized, which was founded and has grown into an international company here, thus making it an appropriate venue for the Disrupt Forum.
But in the long run, Constantine thinks the forum and follow-up efforts will help attract more economic development to Morgan Hill.
“Just getting interest in our industrial (properties) and being an integral part of Silicon Valley would be fantastic,” Constantine said.
He added that Morgan Hill, with its abundance of farmland and sports facilities, could become a “playground” for new technologies that track physical activity, irrigation and related data.
While incubators have become somewhat ubiquitous in Silicon Valley, no such community exists in Morgan Hill yet, Hutcheson said. The investors involved with the June 2 Disrupt Forum hope to change that.
The ongoing effort to do so will include regular pitchfests and networking events similar to Disrupt Forum, potentially on a semi-annual basis, Hutcheson said.
But there is already a deep pool of expertise and resources in Morgan Hill, where many high-tech executives make their home. “Let’s get them involved,” Hutcheson said.
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The Disrupt Forum pitchfest and networking event will take place all day, starting at 9 a.m. June 2, at Specialized Bicycle Components, 15130 Concord Circle. Startup or business owners who want to make a pitch to the panel of judges should submit their executive summaries to
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before April 21. Others who want to attend can buy tickets for $50 each. To order tickets, visit igo.eventbrite.com. For more information about Disrupt Forum, visit disruptaccelerator.com.
