MOHAVE COUNTY – Competitors in Thrive Hualapai’s Inaugural Tall Pine Pitch Competition will take their business ideas before a panel of judges and vie for prizes of up to $5,000 at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 1 at Music Mountain Junior/Senior High School, 16500 Route 66 in Peach Springs.
Thrive Hualapai is a business incubator in Peach Springs created through a partnership with MCC and the Hualapai Tribe to help people turn their passion into profitable businesses. Thrive Hualapai frequently hosts informational sessions and learning opportunities for community members, touching on a wide variety of topics that include workforce training, food-handler training and much more.
That now includes the Tall Pine Pitch Competition, which came to fruition thanks to Hualapai Business Center Manager Manny Siyuja and Hualapai Business Center Training Coordinator Longfeather Fox.
“We got wind of another Tribe putting on an event like this, and then after that, yet another Tribe did it for their community,” Siyuja said. “So, we thought it would be a great idea for us to do one ourselves, and raise interest for the business incubator and for local entrepreneurs. Hualapai itself means People of the Tall Pines, so we thought that was the perfect name to highlight the event itself and also our community.”
Entrepreneurs are set to present their business ideas, models and plans to a panel of judges. Those 15-minute presentations may include music, videos or anything that helps them sell their idea to the panel.
The judges will then weigh in on the structure of their business plans, contestants’ general understanding of their business, overhead considerations and more. Once deliberations conclude, a prize of $5,000 will be awarded to the first-place winner, and $3,000 and $1,500 for second- and third-place, respectively.
“Come out and support entrepreneurship, as this could be you one day!” Siyuja said.
The inaugural event will also feature a number of informational and resource booths courtesy of Mohave Community College, Northern Arizona University and local Chambers of Commerce. Refreshments will be served.
“Indigenous entrepreneurs, I mean what more can you say? Come out as a show of support and enjoy the competition,” Fox said.
