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The winner of the first PitchFestNW contest is Poda Foods, a Portland startup making protein powder from crickets.
Poda was among the 50 tech startups from the Pacific Northwest and Canada selected to pitch their nascent companies to a panel of veteran investors at PitchFestNW, an event presented by WW.
That field was narrowed this afternoon to five finalists:
- StandTall Desks, a company founded by three high-school students who want to bring standing desks to the classroom.
- TripGrid, a platform for greater efficiency and organization in trip planning.
- Cartogram, advertised as “Google maps on steroids.”
- Chroma, a new fund model for people to make small-scale, local investments.
- Poda Foods, which raises “healthy, happy, GMO-free crickets” on a farm in Molalla.
Here is Poda's pitch video:
The 50 startups each made five-minute pitches to investors over the past two days. They competed for a prize package that includes cash, consultations with investors, $120,000 in software services, hotel rooms in San Francisco and a Shinola watch.
Willamette Week
