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This Denver Startup Week event has its ups and downs - literally

This is an elevator ride no one is taking for granted.
Credit: KUSA

KUSA — It’s about a thirty-second elevator ride from the lobby of the 17th Street Plaza to CBRE’s office on the top floor.

The dozens of people who filled that office Monday night are very much aware of that fact. So, with cell phones out and stopwatch apps running - they’re getting ready.

The sound of a room full of startup founders preparing their elevator pitches can be heard all over Denver for Startup Week. The free, volunteer-driven and city-wide event provides a plethora of events for entrepreneurs to network, fundraise, get advice and other things to help make their business dreams become reality.

Adrian Lai mumbles to himself as he paces back and forth on the building’s 32nd floor. He’s pitched his startup plenty of times, but never quite like this.

“This is the first time actually doing it in an elevator,” said Lai, the Denver-based businessman. He hopes his company, Biz Eatz will garner some attention.

“We help business travelers eat healthy while on the road,” Lai said.

Lai is pitching one of more than 30 startup ideas at this event. The event gives these people an opportunity to make their pitch to a panel of judges while riding an elevator from the top floor to the lobby of the building, and back up.

The judges are investors and directors of accelerators from around Colorado. The pitch they like the most will land the startup a spot in the semi-final of the weeklong pitch competition. The winner of the contest will earn $135,000 in cash, investments, services and products.

This is an opportunity to pitch people who can affect these businesses in a real way. Lai worked for a startup in Los Angeles, and says events like this don’t happen everywhere.

“The barriers to getting to talk to the entrepreneurs and have access to people in successful startups is a lot lower [in Denver],” he said.

This is an elevator ride he isn’t taking for granted.

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