Entrepreneurs are used to pitching their business idea to investors, partners, and anyone they might share an elevator ride with. In this competition, the tables turn. The [RE]verse Pitch Competition helps turn valuable raw materials that are currently leaving local businesses, non-profits, and institutions as waste into the raw materials for new or expanding social enterprises.

 

The 2022 Competition is kicking off!

Interested in competing?
First step is to attend the virtual Material Supplier Pitch Event.

 

February 28 • 6-8pm

Join us to hear from the Material Suppliers about their materials and start ideating about how to reuse these materials into a new product or service!

REGISTER HERE

During the opening pitch event, you will hear from businesses and institutions consistently generating or collecting by-product, surplus or otherwise underutilized materials streams in Austin, Texas that could be put to higher and better use in new social enterprises. 

Join us for a virtual presentation to meet the material suppliers, learn more about these materials, and network with other [RE]verse Pitch participants.

This event is free and open to the public, but your RSVP is requested. 

Attendance is STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to compete for an Innovation Fellows Prize valued at $16,500.

Meet the 2022 Material Suppliers

ACC Bioscience Incubator / EQO: Rectangular plastic boxes with a plastic insert containing holes

Austin Creative Reuse: Decorator fabric samples

Austin Creative Reuse: Cuts of high-quality fleece

KIPP Texas Public Schools: School lunch 1/2 pint milk cartons

Rent Equip: Used tracks from compact construction equipment

Travis County: Bulletproof vests

GET INVOLVED

Are you…

An Austin business with a local waste product?

An entrepreneur interested in starting a business that has a positive social impact? Or an established business professional interested in a creative way to diversify your revenue?

A service provider that works with start-ups or small businesses?

An experienced creative, technical or business professional interested in mentoring others?

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INSPIRATION

For-profit and non-profit enterprises across the country are demonstrating the value can be created from waste. Get inspired by these local, national, and global reuse and remanufacturing enterprises:

Classic Childhood creates a line of children’s rompers from men’s dress shirts.

Pentatonic turns items like smartphone glass, plastic bottles, and more into furniture.

Made of Air takes used wood waste and creates a thermoplastic that locks in embodied carbon.

Rhizoform creates insulated packaging using mycelium-based alternatives to replace plastic foam.

Matriark Foods upcycles farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into healthy, delicious, products for food service: schools, hospitals, and food banks.

Patagonia uses discarded cotton scraps to create Responsibili-Tee® T-shirts.

Rubies in the Rubble creates relishes, ketchups & mayos from fresh ingredients that would otherwise go to waste.

Outlander Materials is creating a non-plastic foil from wastewater generated from beer brewing processes.

St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, Oregon: Candles into skateboard wax, window glass into gifts, dog beds from industrial scrap, and more.