{"id":998007,"date":"2026-08-13T11:22:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/998007\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:22:20","slug":"this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition-shark-tank-esque-format-as-local-startups-make-sales-pitches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/998007\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Jacksonville Business Edition: \u2018Shark Tank-esque\u2019 format as local startups make sales pitches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\"><strong>JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Jacksonville\u2019s startup scene gets a spotlight Aug. 19 when the Jacksonville Venture Competition returns to The Link in Nocatee, featuring six local startups pitching live \u2014 with the winner eligible for potential investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cIt is a live pitch competition, think a Shark Tank-esque thing, but local to Jacksonville,\u201d said Cheyenne LeMaire of Chang Robotics and the Chang Robotics Fund.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">LeMaire says the competition is designed to put founders in front of the kind of feedback\u2014and connections\u2014that can accelerate early-stage companies. \u201cWe got a bunch of local companies submitted,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then our selection committee goes through those and chooses the six.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">So what separates contenders from the rest? LeMaire said judges focus heavily on the founder first. \u201cOur judges are looking for three things primarily. One, they\u2019re looking to have confidence in the founder,\u201d she said, adding they also look for \u201chigh growth potential\u201d and whether the company is \u201cinvestable from a paperwork standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">On funding, LeMaire stressed that \u201celigible\u201d doesn\u2019t mean instant money. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a handshake and it\u2019s a done deal,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know, there\u2019s legal paperwork \u2026 we go through due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">She also acknowledged why promising startups can still be a pass for investors. \u201cI think the Chang Robotics Fund would pass on a company if they didn\u2019t understand their space,\u201d LeMaire said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Kent Justice and LeMaire also discussed Jacksonville\u2019s evolving startup ecosystem\u2014and what still needs work. \u201cJacksonville produces great founders and great companies,\u201d she said, \u201cbut\u2026 we\u2019re missing the apparatus as a city to support the startups and also missing a sizable pool of capital that understands startup investing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville\u2019s startup scene gets a spotlight Aug. 19 when the Jacksonville Venture Competition returns to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":998008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,16211,80023,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-998007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-this-week-in-jacksonville","tag-twij","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117087944510868479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=998007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/998008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=998007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=998007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=998007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}