SEASIDE, Calif., May 9, 2019 – The final round of the 10th annual Startup Challenge Monterey Bay will take place Friday, May 10, 2019 from 2-7:30 p.m at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Seaside. The remaining 27 teams will pitch their business ideas to a panel of regional business experts in the “Otter Tank,” competing for over $60,000 in cash and prizes.

2018 Venture Division Winners, Cruz Foam.

In ten years of competition, Startup Challenge Monterey Bay has trained 2,200 aspiring entrepreneurs from 638 participating companies who have gone on to create more than 150 jobs and raise more than $10 million in capital. The final 27 teams in this year’s competition, remaining from an initial field of 83, hail from Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.

During the event, G. Craig Vachon will deliver a keynote address to the attendees entitled: “Why consider being an entrepreneur? A Crash Course in what it takes to earn success with your own business.” Vachon is a serial entrepreneur, investor and novelist. Throughout his career he has earned $1.5B in new investments for 31 projects.

Startup Challenge Monterey Bay is a new business competition and accelerator program that supports the founding, funding and growth of new and innovative businesses in the Monterey Bay region. It offers workshops, feedback, and mentoring to empower entrepreneurs in a competitive process while empowering entrepreneurs to communicate their ideas effectively to investors, customers and employees.

CSUMB’s Institute for Innovation and Economic Development (iiED), housed in the College of Business, hosts events such as the Startup Challenge to promote entrepreneurship in the Monterey Bay Region and foster the development of a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem in the region.