A videography startup working with businesses and nonprofits in Madison has won the Doyenne Group’s annual 5x5x5 pitch contest.
Jamie Perez, a former TV news reporter and founder of Beyond Words Productions, pitched her company yesterday during the virtual competition. It was held as part of Forward Festival, an entrepreneurship and technology event series being held this week in Madison.
“I was able to leave news behind but I was unable to put the camera down and leave storytelling behind,” she said yesterday. “My passion is in telling compelling and compassionate and heartfelt stories, so that’s what I continue to do to this day.”
The contest is meant to help early-stage startups jumpstart their businesses, as part of Doyenne’s mission to advance women- and minority-led entrepreneurship in the state. Perez beat out four other competitor entrepreneurs for the $5,000 prize, which she plans to use for better camera equipment and hiring.
Perez said she aims to create emotional connections through her video projects, helping clients reach customers in a transparent and organic way. She caters to “underserved” organizations in Madison such as social enterprises with limited production budgets.
“Those businesses are often very mission-driven and have a lot of really good emotive stories,” she said. “I’m helping people reach new audiences. So I’m not just providing them with video, but I’m giving them tips on how to master the social media algorithms … my videos are helping specifically with fundraising, storytelling, hiring, marketing.”
This year’s pitch competition was the 12th held by the Doyenne Group, according to co-founder Heather Wentler. She said 93 percent of past winners have been women and about half were minority entrepreneurs.
“We work with women and marginalized entrepreneurs from across Wisconsin, and we’re starting to see broader reach,” Wentler said. “The main area of entrepreneur that we focus on are in the early-stage phase of their company.”
Other competitors in yesterday’s pitch contest gave presentations on an urban cultural arts program, technology for desalination and treatment of wastewater, an environmentally conscious meal kit business, and a virtual assistant program.
See more on Perez and the other entrepreneurs here: https://doyennegroup.org/event/5x5x5-virtual-pitch-competition-forward-fest-2022-2022-08-17-208/register
–By Alex Moe
