8 Naturally Network brands compete Wednesday in Pitch Slam

The 2023 Natural Products Expo East Pitch Slam once again features winners of eight regional Naturally Network Pitch Slam contests.

The competitors come from Naturally Network affiliates in Minnesota; Los Angeles, California; Bay Area (San Francisco, California); Chicago, Illinois; Austin, Texas; New York; Boulder, Colorado; and San Diego, California. Pitch Slam is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, Sept. 20, at the Grand Hall Stage, Level 200 of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The competition will be broadcast live on LinkedIn, as well.

Pitch Slam will follow the same format as the 2023 Expo West and 2022 Expo East events: Each entrepreneur will pitch to the judges—as well as the live and online audiences—then answer the judges' questions. After they deliberate, the judges will announce the finalists and proceed to pepper them with questions during a lightning round that will determine the winner.

In addition to bragging rights, the winning brand will win a free booth at next year's Expo and more than $30,000 in services from New Hope Network.

Seven of the Pitch Slam competitors will exhibit in the Hot Products area of the show floor, near booth 4097. The exception is Every Body Eat, representing Naturally Chicago. That affiliate ran two competitions and split the prize: Every Body Eat won for companies with revenue of $1 million or more; Globowl won for companies with revenue below $1 million. So, Every Body Eat will compete in the Expo East Pitch Slam and Globowl will exhibit on the trade show floor.

Expo East 2023 Pitch Slam is sponsored by 301 Inc and Green Spoon Sales.

Preparing for the Expo East stage

While these eight brands experienced the pressure of a pitch slam contest at the regional level, competing at Expo East is major league pressure.

Of course, just as baseball players have the support of numerous trainers and coaches, the Pitch Slam entrepreneurs are backed by mentors from the natural products industry. This year's mentors have backgrounds in retail, distribution, consultancy, incubators, data analysis, marketing and investment:

To learn more about the Expo East Pitch Slam competitors and the judges, click through the gallery.