The results are in! 🚀
A huge congratulations to the winners of our 2026 Code & Coffee Pitch Competition! It was an incredible afternoon of innovation at Pennovation Works, and these founders truly stood out in a field of 14 impressive pitches:
🎉 1st Place: Julianne Gardner, Bottimals Julianne is tackling the massive challenge of bottle refusal with a solution that is as kind and empathetic as it is effective.
💰 2nd Place: Kivanc Peltek, Cleo Pay Kivanc is helping businesses move past messy manual processes by automating and streamlining payments.
🧑🏽🚒 3rd Place: Anthony Menna, FirstHQ Anthony is empowering first responders with the direct solutions they need so they can stay focused on the front lines.
A massive thank you to our expert judges for their time and invaluable feedback: Jack Weiss, Grace Francisco, Jonathon Beschen, Rocco Christino, and Vincent Perez.
This event would not be possible without our partners who believe in the Philly startup mission: Google, IONOS, Pinecone, SaaS Talent, Pilot, Technically, Pennovation Works, and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Missed out on pitching? We are just getting started. If you want to demo your product, practice your pitch, or get in front of investors, mark your calendars for our next two sessions at Pennovation:
📅 Feb 20: The Warmup Demo Day A low-stakes, high-energy day to practice your pitch and get peer feedback. Special thanks to Pinecone for supporting this builder session!
📅 March 6: The REAL Demo Day (with @onesixoneventures ) Showcase your work directly to investors who are on-site to find the next big thing.
Thank you to the community! We had over 275 people sign up to support these builders. Seeing the room that packed is a perfect reminder of why Philadelphia is such a powerful force in tech. When we show up for each other like this, we prove that our ability to innovate is predicated on our ability to collaborate.
Onward to the next one!
#PhillyTech #Startups #Innovation #CodeAndCoffee #Philadelphia