From First Pitch to $100K: How STartUP Northshore Built the Gulf South's Biggest Community Competition

What does it actually take to build a pitch competition that changes lives and keeps founders in their hometown? In this episode, Molly King, VP of Clients at Economic Impact Catalyst, sits down with Cenzo Caronna and Shivang Thakor of STartUP Northshore to pull back the curtain on the Inspire Startup Slam, one of the Gulf South's largest pitch competitions, running out of a 100-year-old theater in Hammond, Louisiana.

Cenzo and Shiv share how they've built a $100K prize ecosystem (combining $50K in non-dilutive grant cash with in-kind services) serving a three-parish rural region north of New Orleans, and why the event they designed for "the person who got dragged there" has become the cornerstone of their startup ecosystem.

In this episode:

• How STartUP Northshore came together across St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes, and why trust-building in rural communities requires a boots-on-the-ground, not broadcast, approach
• The full founder journey: from the ID Institute 12-week accelerator → Launchpad ($5K competition) → Inspire Startup Slam ($50K)
• Why they scrapped winner-take-all after year one and what they changed
• The six judging criteria, including one most competitions miss: commitment to and potential impact for the North Shore
• How they built a $100K prize pool starting with their own money, a Chevron partnership, and a cold call from Capital One
• The pro tip that saved them $28,000 (hint: book a theater, not a conference room)
• Why in-kind services like accountants, marketing firms, and coworking space may matter more than the cash prize
• Leading vs. lagging indicators: why business formation is a "vanity metric" and what STartUP Northshore actually tracks
• Practical advice for other program managers: expect the unexpected, do non-scalable things, and text your founders

This year's winner didn't make the finals the previous year. He kept building with STartUP Northshore's support and came back to win the whole thing.

Guests:

• Cenzo Caronna, Executive Director, STartUP Northshore
• Shivang Thakor, Program Manager, STartUP Northshore

Host: Molly King, VP of Clients, Economic Impact Catalyst