Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Partners with Entrepreneur to Host the Program's Pitch Room Wild Card Competition

BOSTON, Nov. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- To help expand its coaching and mentoring program to more small businesses across the country, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream announced today a partnership with Entrepreneur Media to launch the Pitch Room Wild Card Competition. Hosted by Entrepreneur.com, the virtual competition starting November 3rd will allow small business owners to submit a product sales pitch for a chance to win a $10,000 business grant and extended mentoring from Samuel Adams.

Entrepreneurs with a food or beverage product, including craft brewers, are invited to upload a two-minute or less video of their best sales pitch to http://entm.ag/SamAdamsPitch from November 3-9, 2014. A panel of experts from Samuel Adams and Entrepreneur will judge the videos based on criteria that include pitch quality, creativity, passion and product viability.

The top 5-6 best video submissions, selected by the panel, will then post to the Entrepreneur site, and the general public will be invited to vote for their favorite from November 13-19, 2014. The small business owner who receives the most votes for his/her sales pitch will be named the Wild Card winner and receive a trip for two to participate in the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Pitch Room finals this December. Held in New York City, the finals are the culmination of the overall Pitch Room Competition, which is designed to help entrepreneurs across the country perfect the art of the sales pitch.

"The Brewing the American Dream program has great synergy with what we do at Entrepreneur, which is connect leaders to a vital thread of insights, information and resources that help businesses thrive," says Ray Hennessey, Entrepreneur.com editorial director. "We're excited to help grow this program by hosting it on Entrepreneur.com, bringing it to the millions who rely on us to learn about and participate in incredible opportunities like this one."

At the finals, the Wild Card winner will compete with fellow small business owners from across the country who won in-person Pitch Room competitions in Chicago, Denver, Boston and New York. Each Pitch Room finalist will give their best two-minute sales pitch to a panel of expert judges, including national retail buyers, an Entrepreneur editor, and Samuel Adams founder and brewer Jim Koch. The judges will then provide constructive feedback for each small business owner before choosing the best pitch. The ultimate 2014 Pitch Room winner will be awarded a $10,000 business grant and extended mentoring from Samuel Adams.

"Making an impactful sales pitch is extremely difficult and most of the time you only get one shot.  I learned that 30 years ago when I started Samuel Adams and brought my beer from bar to bar and sampled bartenders and restaurant owners," said Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams. "That's why we created the Pitch Room Competition, and why we're partnering with Entrepreneur to help even more small business owners across the country improve their pitches through this new Wild Card opportunity."

For more information on how to apply for the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Pitch Room Wild Card Competition, please visit: http://entm.ag/SamAdamsPitch.

About Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream

The Pitch Room Competition is part of Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream, a micro-lending and coaching program that provides a unique combination of access to capital and expert business advice for food, beverage, craft brewing, and hospitality small businesses. As an important extension of the program's coaching and mentoring activities, the Pitch Room Competition has played a key role in helping small business owner's better position and communicate about their products.

The Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream program was launched in 2008, in partnership with Accion, the nation's leading nonprofit provider of small business capital and coaching. To date, it has provided more than $3 million in microloans to over 375 small businesses nationwide, coached more than 4,000 entrepreneurs and helped create or retain more than 2,000 jobs. To learn more, visit http://btad.samueladams.com/.

About Samuel Adams and The Boston Beer Company

The Boston Beer Company began in 1984 with a generations-old family recipe that Founder and Brewer Jim Koch uncovered in his father's attic. Inspired and unafraid to challenge conventional thinking about beer, Jim brought the recipe to life in his kitchen.  Pleased with the results of his work, Jim decided to sample his beer with bars in Boston in the hopes that drinkers would appreciate the complex, full-flavored beer he brewed fresh in America.  That beer was aptly named Samuel Adams Boston Lager, in recognition of one of our nation's great founding fathers, a man of independent mind and spirit.  Little did Jim know at the time, Samuel Adams Boston Lager soon became a catalyst of the American craft beer revolution.

Today, The Boston Beer Company brews more than 60 styles of beer.  It relentlessly pursues the development of new styles and the perfection of classic beers by searching the world for the finest ingredients.  Using the traditional four vessel brewing process, the Company often takes extra steps like dry-hopping, barrel-aging and a secondary fermentation known as krausening.  The Company has also pioneered another revolution, the 'extreme beer' movement, where it seeks to challenge drinker's perceptions of what beer can be. The Boston Beer Company has been committed to elevating the image of American craft beer by entering festivals and competitions around the globe, and is one of the world's most awarded breweries at international beer competitions. As an independent company, brewing quality beer remains its single focus. Although Samuel Adams beer is America's largest-selling craft beer, it accounts for only one percent of the U.S. beer market.  The Boston Beer Company will continue its independently-minded quest to brew great beer and to advocate for the growth of craft beer across America. For more information, please visit www.samueladams.com.

Samuel Adams, Sam Adams, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream are registered trademarks of The Boston Beer Company.

About Entrepreneur Media Inc.

Entrepreneur Media Inc. is the premier content provider for and about entrepreneurs. Our products engage and inspire every day with the advice, solutions and resources that fuel the bold and independent way entrepreneurs think.

After 37 years, nobody reaches more growing businesses. As the original magazine for the small and midsize business community, Entrepreneur continues to be the definitive guide to all the diverse challenges of business ownership. Entrepreneur.com is the most widely used website by entrepreneurs and emerging businesses worldwide. Entrepreneur Press publishes the books that turn entrepreneurial skills into business success.

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About Accion in the U.S.

In seeking a partner for Samuel Adams' Brewing the American Dream the company turned to Accion to facilitate lending to hardworking business owners seeking to grow. As the largest nonprofit nationwide micro-and small business lending network in the United States, Accion connects small business owners with the accessible financing and advice it takes to create or grow healthy businesses.

Since 1991, the five members of the Accion U.S. Network have collectively made over 51,000 loans, totaling over $431 million. Additionally, over 400,000 business owners across the nation have turned to Accion for financial and business advice via workshops, online tools and one-on-one consultations. Globally, Accion (www.accion.org) is a pioneer in microfinance, reaching millions of individuals through its international network of partners. For more information visit us.accion.org.

SOURCE Samuel Adams

Related Links

http://entm.ag/SamAdamsPitch