During the fourth annual Utah Tech Week Pitch Competition, a panel of judges from Utah’s venture capital scene selected startup Crew, a valet waste management and disposal company, to win a $200k investment with Connetic Ventures.
Cameron Lam, co-founder and CEO of Crew, was the second of five entrepreneurs to take the stage in front of approximately 500 people and prove his case to the judges on Feb. 2 at The Grid in Pleasant Grove.
“I knew that the company would grow from our product-market fit with customers, but to get validation from the investing community is big,” Lam says.
Lam “retired” when he was 33, according to his LinkedIn profile, but started Crew when he had an itch for another entrepreneurial adventure. He personally owns many Airbnb properties in Arizona, which helped him recognize the need for “can-to-curb” services and “on-demand trash removal.” Like DoorDash, Crew pays per trash gig.
“We just accepted a term sheet from Upstream Ventures,” Lam says. “I think this will help catapult the round as it comes together. We’re raising $2.5 million because we have so many customers, we just can’t get to them yet.”
This is Connetic Venture’s third year backing the winner of this competition, and Trent Mano, co-founder of Utah Tech Week and general partner at Convoi Ventures, says they are bullish on Utah companies. Convoi Ventures is also bullish, investing only in Utah companies.
“People don’t realize that there have been 34 unicorns in Utah in the last decade,” Mano says. “A lot of people still think of Utah as a flyover state, and so we know [investing in Utah] is our best opportunity.”
Lam’s competitors included Andrew Jouffray, co-founder of Blue Magma Compliance; Jared Jeffery, co-founder and CEO of healthKERI; Tanner Crookston, co-founder of Plaibook; and Bobby Cooper, founder and CEO of Retention Intelligence. Each founder received a standing ovation from the crowd as they finished their pitches.
PT Ungvichian, partner at Utah-based Run Ventures, was one of the competition’s judges. He says there was some back-and-forth over who should win, but ultimately Lam’s story and product-market fit were strongest.
“[Product-market fit] is important at this stage because it’s all about the jockey and the horse, not about the actual race,” Ungvichian says.
Many early-stage founders and boostrapped business owners were in the audience, including Melissa Fuller, president and CEO of GeoTechnical Rock Lab. She applied to the pitch competition but wasn’t selected this year. For her, being a spectator is still incredibly valuable.
“Coming to these events is about getting in the right mindset, getting exposure and listening to people talk about their journey … feeling a little camaraderie,” Miller says. “It’s really me trying to expand.”
