The eosera Foundation Pitch Competition is open for entries. Women entrepreneurs with businesses three years and younger can apply. [Photo: Jill Johnson]

The Fort Worth-based eosera Foundation has opened applications for its eosera Foundation Pitch Competition. Four years after launching its first competition, this year eosera is going national, with a larger cash prize available for the first-place winner.

“We’re so excited to expand the competition this year to women across the United States,” eosera co-founder and CEO Elyse Stoltz Dickerson said in a statement. “The first three years, we really focused on entrepreneurs here in Texas, but our goal was always to eventually have a larger reach and invite more women to apply for this exciting opportunity.”

This year, the competition is open to women from around the United States who have been in business for three years or less, eosera said. Applications will close Sept. 9, or once the maximum number of entries has been received.

This year, the overall earnings available are $42,500, with $30,000 offered for the first-place award, $5,000 for the second-place award, $2,500 for the third-place award, and $5,000 for the people’s choice award.

Stoltz Dickerson co-founded ear care company eosera in 2015 and was able to use seed money from a pitch competition she won to help get the company off the ground, the company said. Ten years later, eosera has grown substantially, with ear drops and sprays sold in more than 28,000 stores nationwide.

Dickerson said her success can be attributed to having financial support and mentorship during the early stages of the company.

“The fact of the matter is that we would not have been able to be so successful in the beginning had it not been for us winning a pitch competition,” Dickerson said.

The pitch competition will culminate in a live competition on Nov. 13 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Three finalists will present their pitches to a panel of judges and a live audience at a chance to win funding. This year’s competition is made possible through the support of iHeart Impact and Simmons Bank, as well as other contributors.

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R E A D   N E X T

  • The competition, which seeks to support female-led businesses in Texas, will award the top winners $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000 prizes, plus an additional $5,000 People’s Choice prize.

  • Ikeda and Orikeda Trashi took home $12,000 in the Big Idea student competition for Biodelivera, a platform that delivers cancer therapy directly to tumors. In the alumni track, the top prize went to Brice Sokolowski for his sweat-evaporating Vaucluse Backpack Ventilation Gear.

  • As executive director, Jenny Lewis is the top management leader of the Frisco-based foundation, whose mission is to positively impact the lives of youth, military veterans, and diverse populations by enabling access to PGA of America Golf Professionals, PGA Sections, and the game of golf.

  • Ikeda and Orikeda Trashi took home $12,000 in the April 16 UT Dallas Big Idea student competition for Biodelivera, a platform that delivers cancer therapy directly to tumors using using “virus-like particles.” In the alumni track, the top prize went to Brice Sokolowski for his sweat-evaporating Vaucluse Backpack Ventilation Gear.

  • The collaboration could have a big payback for high school students aiming for a high-tech future. The foundation and Codecademy aim to supply educational tools, resources, and bootcamps to develop essential technology, AI, and coding skills for the future.