5x5 Night
5K / 5 ideas / 5 Judges...
5x5 Night is a monthly pitch competition for West Michigan entrepreneurs, coders, makers, tinkerers and doers. Each month one winner takes home $5,000 to help make their startup idea a reality -- no strings attached.
There is a large online component to the competition. One month before the physical pitch event, ideas are submitted to a website where the online community votes for the top five votes to pitch for a $5,000 prize.
Many of the winning companies go on to scale beyond the initial 5K investment, attracting further capital and growing into a profitable business.
In 2014 we revived the project, rebranding and redeveloping the website in partnership with Mighty in the Midwest.
5x5 Night turned into quite the inclusive event focused on entrepreneurship in West Michigan, that soon became a required affair within the community. In reviving the program, we were committed to cross-culture involvement in order to involve parts of West Michigan in economic development efforts that have felt left-out.
We even hosted a few 5x5 Night events in Spanish!
After re-gaining a bunch of popularity, it was re-incorporated into a Start Garden program.
Take a peek...