Sandpoint stages 'Chairlift Pitch' contest for entrepreneurs

SANDPOINT — Attention entrepreneurs: If you’re looking to take your outdoor, recreation or hospitality business to the next level, then a pioneering new competition could be your ticket.  Make that, your lift ticket. 

The Great Sandpoint Chairlift Pitch Contest is a dynamic twist on the old-school “elevator pitch” contest, where entrepreneurs sell their idea for a new business in about the time they’d have on an elevator ride. But in this unique initiative, the pitching is done on an eight-minute chairlift ride at Schweitzer Mountain — a dramatic way of underscoring the terrific lifestyle benefits that Sandpoint has to offer any company that is located here.

The event is tailored to attract new a business to locate to Sandpoint — or, to help a newly launching home-grown business to take flight. The unique twist is already focusing regional and national media attention on Sandpoint as a place to do business — among others, Active Interest Media, publisher of Backpacker and Climbing magazines, is providing major promotional support. 

But Mark Rivers, the city’s downtown economic development consultant through its Sandpoint Forward initiative, said it could well be that the next hot new idea for a Sandpoint company doesn’t come from out of town at all. 

“We’re looking to find the next business mogul on our moguls,” he said. “And that could well come from a Sandpoint local who has a hot new business idea and is ready to make the leap. We’re certainly encouraging local entrepreneurs to apply.”

The event is slated for Thursday, March 15, with registration now open at www.sandpointforward.com for all qualified, emerging businesses who will simply commit to growing their business in Sandpoint. The deadline for registration is March 1. 

Awards include six months free office rental, a $1000 cash prize, local finance fundraising efforts, mentoring and a variety of local lifestyle benefits, including ski passes, concert tickets and boat rentals.  A team of judges will join the ride up the lift, on skis and snowboards, to select the best company and idea.  The event is focused on companies in the outdoor, recreation, and hospitality industries.

Sandpoint’s natural charms are well known — it was named as “the most beautiful small town in the U.S.” last year by USA Today, and just last month Rand McNally declared it of the “best seven ski towns” in America.

What’s possibly less well known is that Sandpoint is also an outstanding business venue, especially for new emerging businesses that are not necessarily tethered to urban areas. With a population of only 7200, Sandpoint is the birthplace of a number of companies with worldwide presence, including women’s retailer Coldwater Creek, specialty food purveyor Litehouse Foods and, the manufacturer of the Kodiak airplane, Quest Aircraft.

 “The community has a great legacy of grooming great skiing trails and grooming entrepreneurs here, too,” said Rivers. He noted that Sandpoint’s outstanding outdoor and recreational attributes can be a  real, tangible benefit to start-up companies vying to attract good employees — and the chairlift pitch contest aims to drive home that point.

“What better place to tell the story and launch the next generation of innovators than on our slopes, where the locals play and work, too?” he said.

Sponsors of the event include: Schweitzer, Aim Media/SNEWS, Lee & Evans Law Firm, the city of Sandpoint, Downtown Sandpoint Business Association, Panhandle State Bank and Washington Trust Bank.