GittaSitta Receives $25,000 Startup South Bend – Elkhart/Elevate Ventures Grand Prize During University of Notre Dame’s McCloskey New Venture Competition

May 12, 2021

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (May 12, 2021) — Last month, GittaSitta, a local technology startup committed to streamlining the babysitter hiring process was awarded the Startup South Bend – Elkhart/Elevate Ventures Grand Prize during the 2021 McCloskey New Venture Competition. Founded by three entrepreneurs who share a love for the South Bend – Elkhart region, GittaSitta received a $25,000 cash award provided by Startup South Bend – Elkhart in partnership with Elevate Ventures, a venture development organization that provides funding and entrepreneurial development to high-potential businesses in Indiana.

“The GittaSitta team is honored to receive the Startup South Bend – Elkhart Best Community Venture award,” said GittaSitta Founder, Mandy Kinnucan. “These funds will support the launch of the GittaSitta app and will make it possible to add new features that we know parents will love. After a long pandemic year, sitters are going to be in high demand. We’re excited to make it easier for parents to book a babysitter and enjoy some kid-free time, hopefully supporting local restaurants and the other amazing places in our community.”

GittaSitta is an easy-to-use “set it and forget it” app that gives parents the freedom to check one more thing off their to-do list. With everyone getting vaccinated and people feeling more comfortable leaving their homes, parents will want to get out of the house and spend time without their kids. GittaSitta will help these busy parents organize and streamline the process of hiring a babysitter using the parents’ own trusted network of babysitters.

On April 30th, 16 area teams were awarded more than $250,000 in cash and in-kind prizes during a livestream ceremony of the 21st McCloskey New Venture Competition. Since the competition began in 2001 with 70 teams and $30,000 in awards, 2,286 teams with 7,000 participants have been awarded more than $1.65 million in prizes, and 2,900 judges and mentors have contributed.

For more information about the McCloskey New Venture Competition and to view the program with a full breakdown of the awardees and their descriptions, click here.

About Startup South Bend – Elkhart
The mission of Startup South Bend – Elkhart, a non-profit initiative of the South Bend Elkhart Regional Partnership is to promote and foster the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the South Bend – Elkhart region. Startup South Bend – Elkhart works to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit and culture in the regional community, identify and nurture new business startups, and support the growth of existing high potential businesses. For more information about Startup South Bend – Elkhart, visit startupsouthbendelkhart.com.

About Elevate Ventures
Elevate Ventures is a private venture development organization that nurtures and develops emerging and existing high-growth businesses into high-performing, Indiana-based companies. Elevate Ventures accomplishes this by providing access to capital, rigorous business analysis and robust advisory services that connect companies with the right mix of resources businesses need to succeed long term. To learn more about Elevate Ventures, visit elevateventures.com.

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Media Contacts
Regina Emberton (Startup South Bend – Elkhart) – remberton@southbendelkhart.org
Erica Schweyer (Elevate Ventures) – eschweyer@elevateventures.com
Mandy Kinnucan (GittaSitta) – mandy.kinnucan@gmail.com

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