Sales Copilot takes first at Seward startup weekend where 27 attendees pitched ideas

Judges ranked Sales Copilot first among six business ideas teams developed over roughly 50 hours at the Techstars Alaska Startups Weekend in Seward Oct. 2 to 4, according to an Oct. 29 release from Alaska NSF EPSCoR. Acquisition Arbor placed second and Deck Hand third. Acquisition Arbor also won the People's Choice Award, decided by audience vote.

The weekend opened with 27 attendees pitching ideas to their peers. Small teams of community members and students then took on six of them.

The teams did customer discovery: they went into Seward and talked with potential customers to learn whether their proposed solutions could solve real problems. If an idea did not resonate, the release says, the team figured out what it should build instead and changed course. On Saturday and Sunday, teams met with coaches: local entrepreneurs, investors, designers and developers.

The weekend ended with each team giving an investor-style pitch to a panel of judges: Taylor Holshouser, managing partner for Seamark; Liam Zsolt, senior director of innovation and new business development with Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; and Melissa Schutter, assistant vice president with First National Bank of Alaska.

Fifty people took part overall, including Seward entrepreneurs and others from Anchorage, Valdez and Fairbanks. Project funds and staff time helped eight University of Alaska Fairbanks and Anchorage students attend.

The weekend is part of Interface of Change, a five-year project funded by a $20 million National Science Foundation award announced in April 2024. The project studies climate-driven effects on marine resources, Alaska communities, food security and subsistence. Its strategic plan calls for an annual Startup Weekend with Techstars of at least 20 participants as a workforce development goal.