2024 Dream Pitch Program – United States

The Dream Pitch Program is a cohort-based training program for microbusinesses in Ward 7 and 8 culminating into the Dream Pitch Competition. The Dream Pitch Competition is an opportunity for participants to pitch their business to a panel of judges, showcasing the knowledge gained through the program resulting in a pitch award between $2000 to $7500. Microbusinesses accepted into this competitive program will receive business development training in across several topic areas from local service provider selected through the Business to Business grant program, including:

• Business Basics & Pitch Preparation
• Financial Projections and Financial Management
• Marketing & Branding
• Peer Mentorship

Class and program schedules will be finalized around April 2024 when all program service providers are finalized with some required and some optional classes. Applicants will be asked to complete a survey about general availability in their applications for programming anticipated for April-June/July 2024.

Eligibility Criteria

• Program eligible microbusinesses must have fewer than five (5) employees, the business must be located in Ward 7 or 8 and the applicant must be a Ward 7 or 8 resident owning 51% or more of the business. This program is only for For-Profit businesses.
• Applicants and program/pitch participants must be the majority business owner. Multiple participants per business are not accepted. Participants in the 2023 Dream Pitch Program who received a pitch award and/or selected participants in the 2024 Aspire Incubator Program are not eligible to participate to Dream Pitch this year.
• DSLBD will be accepting applications in Winter/Spring 2024 for both the Dream Pitch 2024 and 2024 Aspire Incubator programs. Eligible businesses may apply for both programs but will only be selected to participate in one program in 2024.

For more information, visit DSLBD.