The Atlanta Hawks have made a call for all local business owners to come shoot their shot. The NBA franchise recently announced it has teamed up with The Black Girl Ventures Foundation to host “Pull Up & Pitch,” an opportunity for small business owners and entrepreneurs to pitch their businesses to a panel for 60 seconds and a chance to receive instant funding on Nov. 11 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at State Farm Arena.
Recently, Narcis Alikhani, the Hawks’ Vice President of Marketing, and Omi Bell, The Black Girl Ventures Fund CEO, spoke to rolling out about the opportunity.
What should business owners expect when they arrive at State Farm Arena on Nov. 11?
Bell: Black Girl Ventures [works] to create access to capital for Black and Brown women founders. This event is open to all founders locally, and we’re super excited about it to be partnering with the Hawks, who deeply care about the city of Atlanta.
The way it’s going to work is we will have three judges, and people will get up and shoot their shot for 60 seconds. Those judges will either give them a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If you get one thumbs up, you get $200. If you get two thumbs up, you get $250. If you get three thumbs up, you get $500 and a chance to move to the next round to pitch for up to $10,000.
It’s an exciting event. I’m going to kick it to Narcis because I’m excited to partner with the Hawks; she could say [how] they feel about it.
Alikhani: We are super excited to continue to use our platform to support Atlanta minority-owned businesses by partnering with The Black Girl Ventures Foundation and the NBA Foundation.
This one-day competition will be a fun way to inspire and support the next generation of entrepreneurs. Later that evening, we play against the Miami Heat and will debut our fly City Edition uniform and court for the very first time, so make sure you get your tickets before we sell out.
We tied this [competition] in with our City Edition campaign because our City Edition campaign this year is called “Lift As We Fly.” That’s all about celebrating the power of collaboration, Atlanta’s the City of Dreams, you can literally make any dream come true in the city. “Lift As We Fly” celebrates our collaboration and our deep-rooted commitment to the Atlanta community and lifting one another up.
If I’m a business owner, what do I need to know to have the best 60-second pitch?
Bell: [What] to put in a pitch is pretty straightforward.
This is whether you’re pitching for 60 seconds, 3 minutes, or 10 minutes. You always want to have what is it? Why is it? Why are you for it? And why should we care about it?
That’s pretty much what you want to have. You should be able to tell that story in a small amount of time and in a long amount of time.
