KC-area startup nets $20K Kansas pitch tournament win with game-changing edtech
Andrew Márquez, VU Scholarships, pitches his startup during the Gamechangers & Champions bracket bash pitch competition in Wichita; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News
WICHITA — The team at VU Scholarships left it all on the stage Friday, walking away as champions in the Gamechangers & Champions bracket bash — a high-intensity pitch competition running parallel to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Wichita.
By outlasting 31 other Sunflower State companies, the Roeland Park-based edtech startup earned $20,000 in the tournament-style event organized by NXTUS and the Kansas Department of Commerce.
“Honestly, it’s hard to put words to it,” Andrew Marquez, co-founder and CEO of VU Scholarships, said after the victory. “To be able to come here and be amidst a bunch of other solid, great, qualified companies, and then to have won, it’s really validating.”