“It was a miracle it all came together in less than two months.”

2022 Naturally Bay Area Pitch Slam winner Pauline Ang, Co-Founder and CEO of Twrl Milk Tea, crossed the country to represent Naturally Bay Area at the first ever Natural Products Expo East Pitch Slam presented by Naturally Network in partnership with New Hope Network. The competition brought together Pitch Slam winners and runners-up from affiliates around the country. Hear how Pauline did and what she got out of the Pitch Slam experience.

A Winning Pitch from Coast to Coast

As the winner of our 2022 Naturally Bay Area Pitch Slam in late July, Pauline Ang, Founder & CEO of Twrl Milk Tea earned a free booth from New Hope Network at Natural Products Expo East in Philadelphia.  Pauline also earned a chance to participate in the National Naturally Network pitch slam with Naturally Bay Area finalist Ryan Armistead of Happy Moose Juice and eight winning brands from competitions in other local affiliates. 

We are pleased to announce Twrl Milk Tea placed second following grand prize winner Gear Hugger of San Diego. Happy Moose was also one of the five finalists. 

Support from the Sponsor Community

As with Naturally Bay Area Pitch Slam Winner Aura Bora in 2021, our goal as a Bay Area community is to work together to rally behind our winner. Although we had less than two months between the local and national competition this year, Naturally Bay Area sponsor Parabolic Agency mobilized quickly to help Twrl Milk Tea with complimentary Expo Booth support and shipper display sourcing and design while their Naturally Bay Area mentor offered valuable advice in prepping for both competitions. The Twrl Milk Tea team used the $6K local cash prize from Aspect Consumer Capital and stipend from New Hope for Expo travel and shipping and plans to take advantage of offerings from Naturally Bay Area sponsors Omnium, Social Nature and SPINS in the coming months as they expand retail distribution.  

“We are extremely grateful for the Naturally Bay Area community (especially to Mary Tarczynski, Jason Unger and Caleb Friends at Parabolic) for the opportunity to introduce Twrl Milk Tea to east coast buyers, distributors and retailers. The Parabolic team was organized, professional and on top of things! It was a miracle it all came together in less than two months for the largest East coast trade show. We love being part of Naturally Bay Area,” said Olivia Chen, CoFounder and CMO. 

Next Up for Twrl and Naturally Bay Area

Twrl Milk Tea is specifically seeking angel investors, more press coverage (like SF Chronicle, NPR, NYT, etc), and referrals for a Sales Account Manager and welcomes all continued support from the natural products community. 

This is the second year Naturally Bay Area curated the sponsor-provided elements of the pitch slam prize package based on the winner’s needs. We look forward to having more time to support our 2023 winner as we plan the 5th Annual Naturally Bay Area Pitch Slam next spring. Stay tuned for details and a call for applications in early 2023.

Learn more about Twrl Milk Tea at twrlmilktea.com »
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