Pitch Hamburg hits its stride with first cohort

Pitch Hamburg officials are hoping they’re on the cusp of spawning multiple success stories from its first year of innovation programming.

The culmination of the program’s first six-month cohort occurred last week when five businesses made pitches to a panel of judges at Hilbert College with $5,000 in seed money on the line for three winners.

Annamaria Masucci, executive director of Pitch Hamburg, called it inspiring to see all the pitches from business owners who came into the program with ideas at different stages for new ventures.

The business owners went through six months of workshops on finance and business planning, mentorship and community meetings, and had access to the Pitch Hamburg incubator space at 40 Main St. in the Village of Hamburg.

The three winning businesses – Clean Earth Refillery, founded by Erin Huff, Our Omphalos (Jennifer Richter), and Merit Badge Books (Heather Jackson) – are planning to set up shop in some way in the area.

Merit Badge Books, which is focused on new trade books for families, is looking for a brick-and-mortar shop in Hamburg.

Clean Earth Refillery, which promotes zero waste living by offering customers the opportunity to reuse their own containers or purchase reusable containers, will start selling products this summer through pop up shops.

Our Omphalos, an educational wellness consulting company providing programming for children and schools, has already served more than 600 students in the past year and will continue expanding its platform.

“To see them grow through that process and lean on each other and members of our board in networking, it was so much fun,” Masucci said.

Richter, an educator and yoga instructor for nearly three decades who works as a teacher at Charlotte Avenue Elementary School in Hamburg, said it was important to be “open and vulnerable” to help meet the challenges that come…