Northwestern Mutual Calls on Entrepreneurs
Northwestern Mutual will host its second Reverse Pitch MKE, a nationwide competition, during Startup Milwaukee Week. On November 6, company executives will pitch to entrepreneurs, outlining three business challenges the company is looking to explore and solve, for a chance to earn a seed investment up to $85,000. In addition to funding, entrepreneurs with the leading solution will receive access to corporate mentors and networks, as well as working space in Cream City Labs, which recently opened in Northwestern Mutual’s downtown Milwaukee headquarters.
Reverse Pitch MKE is open to entrepreneurs, startups and creatives throughout the country, as the company looks to solve three challenges:
- Securing Payments – Seeking an automated and secure way to conduct high volume, high dollar, business to business financial transactions (i.e. wire transfers). The current process requires manual effort to mitigate the risk of fraud or error.
- Evaluating Inclusion – Seeking a way to determine the impact of efforts to create and maintain a diverse and inclusive work environment. Traditional practices to measure diversity and inclusion are currently limited to head count and surveys, rather than incorporating sentiment and language found within a company’s digital content (i.e. media, videos, training language).
- Streamlining Medical Record Review – Seeking a way to reduce the amount of human review required to analyze PDF medical records in underwriting an insurance policy or evaluating a claim. Current challenges include redundant data, records out of sequence, and lack of association between related topics.
“At Northwestern Mutual, we recognize that great ideas can come from outside of our four walls and welcome outside-in thinking. Reverse Pitch MKE allows us to connect with startups in new ways, as well as provide them with funding and resources to launch a potential product of their own and help them grow their businesses.” – VP of digital workplace, corporate solutions and head of digital innovation at Northwestern Mutual, Karl Gouverneur.
