The Competition
EVERYONE ENTERS THE SUMMIT WITH A CLEAN SCORECARD.
150 startups pitch athletes from their exhibit booths. Athlete favorites advance to the competition stages.
Two Stages. One Path.
The Show is the preseason. The Summit is game day.
Pitch Athletes Show
Startups pitch athlete investors on camera. Athletes question founders and make the call on who they want to back.
Pitch Athletes Summit
150 startups pitch athletes from their booths. Athlete favorites advance through the Playoffs and the Finals.
The Path
From The Floor to the Finals
The Floor
Pitch athletes.
All 150 companies exhibit together — curated startups and sponsored Ballathon teams, no separate sections. Founders pitch, products get experienced, athletes scout.
The Athlete Vote
Athletes decide the first cut.
Every participating athlete votes for the companies they most want to see advance within the four categories.
THE PLAYOFFS
Two competitive stages.
Athlete-selected companies pitch to dedicated athlete-investor judges. Companies pitch, athletes interrogate, founders defend, judges decide.
THE FINALS
A fresh panel.
Finalists face an entirely new marquee athlete-investor panel. No inherited scores, no protected picks, no automatic category winner.
The Champions
Four categories. One champion.
Health & Wellness, Human Performance, Sports Tech and Athlete-Led each crown a champion and one company is named the Pitch Athletes Champion.
The Math
The field narrows fast.
The Finals
The founder isn't performing
for the crowd.
Founders sit face to face with the athlete judges. The audience watches the reactions, the questions and the answers on the big screens — everyone else gets to watch a real investment conversation happen live.
Fresh evaluation
Playoffs judges do not judge the Finals. Every finalist starts even.
Championship production
Lighting, screens and set transform the space for the Finals.
Real outcomes
Investment conversations begin the moment the pitch ends.
Categories
Four ways to compete.
Health & Wellness
Physical health, mental health, nutrition, prevention, recovery and quality of life.
Human Performance
Companies helping people train, perform, recover, adapt and improve physical or cognitive performance.
Sports Tech
Technology changing how sports are played, coached, measured, experienced, managed and monetized.
Athlete-Led
Exceptional companies led by athletes, in any industry.
IT'S GAME TIME.
Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis.