South Bend Startup Wins New Venture Competition
(photo courtesy of the University of Notre Dame IDEA Center)
A South Bend-based technology startup has won the University of Notre Dame’s McCloskey New Venture Competition. Viewtique, which has developed a platform to support locally-owned fashion boutiques, took home the $50,000 grand prize from Startup South Bend – Elkhart and Elevate Ventures.
Viewtique is a website that lets users browse, shop, and earn rewards from area fashion boutiques. The startup says its mission is to make local boutique shopping as accessible as possible to shoppers. The website currently features 11 boutiques, and the startup says it plans to add more soon.
Viewtique says it will forgo any profits while stay-at-home orders are in place, making the website a great way to shop local fashion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Viewtique team is thrilled to have secured the Startup South Bend – Elkhart/Elevate Ventures Grand Prize,” said Viewtique co-founder, Mike Cali. “We’re putting that money right to work for our boutique partners and for this community by building an online experience that helps local shoppers consider shopping local boutiques first,” said Cali. “We’re so glad SUSBE and Elevate Ventures decided to award their prize to a company dedicated to helping local boutiques thrive.”
Event organizers say 13 teams were awarded more than $400,000 in cash and in-kind prizes during a livestream ceremony of the competition.
“In my mind, Viewtique is creating a double win for the region: a high potential technology startup that also meaningfully supports the continued viability of our local retailers. This value proposition is compelling in general but is particularly meaningful in our current COVID-19 environment as we all do our best to shop locally,” said Susan Ford, Startup South Bend – Elkhart board member and Graham Allen Partners director.
The competition began in 2001 with 70 teams and $30,000 in awards. Since then, more than 2,286 teams with 7,000 participants have been awarded over $1.65 million in prizes.
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