Today we’d like to introduce you to Kat Weaver.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I like to say I’m a 2x accidental founder. I always wanted to go into medicine, but my parents’ entrepreneurship genes ran deeper than I thought. Without understanding what it meant to be an entrepreneur, I started my first company out of my college dorm room after having my valuables stolen out of my gym locker. I invented and patented several products where I had to learn everything from manufacturing to legal to building a website and more. I didn’t have a natural network or money to fund the company, so I entered and won 22 of 23 pitch competitions, amounting to six figures in startup capital.
The funds allowed me to do everything from retail, amazon, and Good Morning America — 4 times!
I took the company full-time after college, and shortly after, FedEx posted my top pitch tips on their YouTube channel. The video went viral so I had hundreds of founders messaging me asking, “How can I tell my story and raise money?” I started coaching founders on the side to win everything from grants to securing venture capital. After founders were securing money, thanks to my advice, I actively sold and exited my first company after 6 years to start my 2nd with the mission to help more founders get funded faster through Power To Pitch.
I had no intention of sharing my pitch advice or even meeting my now business partner with complementary strengths, but I’m so grateful for all of the struggles that led me to find my true superpower in helping other early-stage founders create a winning pitch, deck, fundraising strategy, all while getting connected to strategic investors in their industry. We’ve helped early-stage founders raise over $17 million in grants and venture capital (and counting!).
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Shortly after starting my first company, I was making every product and storing my materials in my mom’s bridal store while I fulfilled my orders. About 1-month into the business, my mom had lost her business of 26 years to a devastating fire, so not only did she lose everything, but I also had to go back to 0.
One of my professors in college had then encouraged me to pitch my company at an entrepreneurship competition for grant money. I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew this was my only shot to try and get funds to bring my business back. My focus led me to find winning methods in clear communication and presentations that allowed me to secure my 22 pitch wins. Without the experience of the fire, my professor, and lack of capital, I may have never honed my true skills…pitching! After attending many of my pitch competitions, my parents used to joke that I should pitch for a living instead of “actually running the business.” I never took them seriously, but they had noticed my skills before I had.
I’ve experienced many of the typical small business hardships since, but they’ve all helped me pivot and shape where I’ve needed to be. The resilience has helped me hone my skills for finding top founders through my now company, Power To Pitch, because I believe that the best founders are 4 things:
Gritty
Coachable
Passionate
Transparent
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Power To Pitch helps early-stage founders with their pitch and directly connects them to capital sources, like grants, debt, and/or investors related to their industry.
We specialize in supporting pre-seed to seed stage founders raising between $250k-2.5 million for our fundraising program, and for our grant program, we support founders with less than $1 million in revenue in helping them secure non-dilutive funding.
We are the only program that doesn’t take equity and helps founders until the last check of their fundraising round comes in. For example, if a founder is raising $1 Million – we support them through their pitch, investor relation support, and more until they’re funded.
We primarily serve female and underrepresented founders because that group secured less than 1.6% of all venture capital in the last year, while it’s even less, at .13% for minority founders. We’ve helped founders raise over $17 million in grants and venture capital (and counting!).
With my storytelling expertise and my business partner’s 25-year finance, angel investing, and due-diligence expertise, it’s our mission to help founders get funded faster.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I’m very active on LinkedIn and share a lot of free pitch/startup advice daily! https://www.linkedin.com/in/katweaver/
Early-stage founders can apply for our fundraising program here: https://www.powertopitch.com/apply
Or if a founder is a looking for grants and non-dilutive capital only – they can get started applying to our list of over 250+ grant opportunities here: https://www.powertopitch.com/grantpower
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.powertopitch.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katweaver/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBU0AhTBGePcgDnz1wfUxRw
