2019 Ski Lift Pitch Competitors & Judges Announced

Since its first year in 2014, ABQid’s Ski Lift Pitch competition has brought national attention to New Mexico. The event now puts the state on the map as a place where snow-loving investors and startups convene to identify new business opportunities and build new professional relationships.

ABQid’s Ski Lift Pitch Contest began 5 years ago when ABQid board member, Katie Rice, envisioned a one-of-its-kind startup pitch competition. The idea: startup teams pitch their companies to prestigious investors while they ride the chair lift together to the top of the mountain. After multiple rounds of pitching in this format, three startup finalists are selected to pitch on stage for a chance to win $10,000 non-dilutive capital.

Former contest winners include Taos Mountain Energy Bars, UBQid, EquiSeq, and Twistle, but really, all competitors are winners because they get the opportunity to forge intentional relationships with multiple investors from around the country. This brings value to investors and startups long after the end of the event. Last year, for example, one runner-up went on to receive a $300,000 investment from an investor they met at the Ski Lift Pitch competition. That startup continues to grow, right here in New Mexico.

Tickets to this years event can be purchased at www.skiliftpitch.com.

2019 Competitors

Ski Lift Pitch returns to New Mexico in February 2019, again with the generous support of Taos Ski Valley and many sponsors, investors, and individuals who give their time and resources to make this event a success.

Ski Lift Pitch 2019 is particularly exciting due to the number of New Mexico-based companies that will compete. This year, 50% of finalist companies are from New Mexico, as well as six investor judges. Outside of the Ski Lift Pitch season, we at ABQid works hard to build successful startups in our state, and we also strive to highlight New Mexico as a place where investors look for promising investment opportunities. As such, we couldn’t be more excited to see the New Mexico startup ecosystem thriving and gaining the attention of both in- and out-of-state investors.

Here are the competitors:

• Boobi Butter: Boobi Butter makes breast health easy, fun, and empowering, encouraging women to perform regular breast-massages and self-checks with our nourishing topical breast care products.
• Covisus: Covisus develops technology to forge secure, transparent supply chains, helping companies ensure the integrity of their products.
• Armada Lock: Armada Lock is developing Drone Fleet Management, a SaaS service management platform for commercial drones.
• Go-Station: Go-Station provides the most advanced rapid electric vehicle charging network in the world.
• iTherapy Docs: iTherapy Docs provides an agency management platform (SaaS) for Medicaid/Personal Care Services (PCS)
• K&K Skin Products: K&K Skin Products uses nature’s power plus cutting edge science to achieve healthy skin.  
• Magnify Your Voice: Magnify provides a civic action network tool to boost civic engagement.
• Medicheck Mx: Medicheck MX is building an Electronic Health Record Ecosystem for Latin America.
• NTxBio: NTxBio uses nature’s blueprints to identify and build molecules of market interest.
• Rest Assured: Rest Assured is creating a fusion of clinical sleep medicine and retail sleep products.
• Trusted Herd: Trusted Herd’s staffing industry reputation site is the largest, most reputable & only such site in the United States.
• VisionQuest Biomedical: VisionQuest revolutionizes retinal diagnostics with the EyeStar™ artificial intelligence (AI) reading system, a market-ready, cost-effective solution to screen for Diabetic Retinopathy and other vision threatening eye diseases.

2019 Investor Judges

• Andrew Romero of Kynismos Capital Group (NY/NM) / St. Andrews Angels (NY)
• Bert Roberts of Sorenson Capital (UT)
• Brad Brown of Onemata (CO)
• Brandon Beck of Kickstart Seed Fund (UT)
• Dan Brooks of Sun Mountain Capital (NM)
• David McKinney of Wilkinson Family of Companies (WA)
• Fritz Schlereth of Descartes Labs (NM)
• Hal Hayden of Trinity Capital Investment (AZ)
• Hemai Parthasarathy of Breakout Ventures (CA)
• Jeff Villalobos of Vella Wood (TX)
• Lee Rand of Sun Mountain Capital (NM)
• Mark Epstein of True Health New Mexico (NM)
• McLain Southworth of Cross Link Capital (CA)
• Nate Mortensen of Tallwave Capital (AZ)
• Pat Riley of GAN Ventures (CO)
• Sam Sengel of CNM (NM)
• Will Smith of Onemata (CO)
• Yasine Armstrong of Flywheel Ventures (NM)

 

Many Thanks to Our 2019 Sponsors