Created and led by UNC-Chapel Hill grads for current UNC students, The PITCH Chapel Hill is a dual event space and tech entrepreneurial hub designed to foster long-lasting partnerships between neighboring businesses and the UNC community.
“A space is only as valuable, entertaining and impactful as the people that fill it,” the website states. “That’s why we put community at the forefront of our vision.”
The venue located on West Franklin Street was originally used as an incubator-esque space for a group of fraternity students, but could not sustain itself with its original model. Ultimately, UNC-Chapel Hill graduate and budding entrepreneur Willie Barron was brought on to redefine what the space could be used for.
Barron was previously Co-Founder and CEO of WAVE (now The Wave), a Chapel Hill-based platform that provided information on maximum capacities in local bars while helping those bars regain business during the pandemic. In tandem to that, he was the subject of a feature on WAVE back in 2020.
As it turned out, Barron had the perfect vision for The PITCH, even before finding out about the space.
“For the longest time… I always wanted to create a company that could serve people to have more creative freedom,” Barron said. “I wanted to conceptually build a company that had branched in every industry and was made up of freelancers so that people could build themselves in simultaneous outlets…with The PITCH, the timing worked out perfectly.”
The PITCH is a kaleidoscope of different services made available for local businesses, entrepreneurs and creatives to come together, collaborate and have some fun. While primarily designed to help students find work with local businesses and work on their own personal projects, the venue also hosts events like happy hours and comedy nights.
At its forefront, The PITCH features an event space with a full bar and a coffee shop and lounge. Deep down at its core—literally in the downstairs—it is a hub, chock full of resources, people and ideas where any business looking to recruit services and any student looking to build their portfolio can find a fit. The venue also includes a podcast studio, a recording studio, a media room, conference rooms and tons of coworking space where any student can thrive.
Helping Students Earn and Develop
“The goal of this space is to provide options for students,” Barron said. “An idea could come up and anybody that’s interested would jump on it, the students would execute it, we pay them out. Students can also pitch their own ideas and there could be five other people around here who might be interested in building that team, maybe scale that up and then they end up running their own company.”
Since The PITCH sits centrally between the town of Chapel Hill and the University, Barron and the rest of his team realized they wanted to create a marketplace where people could earn income. They also recognized that the most readily available market right now is within services like website building or logo design. So, to go a step beyond being just for students, The PITCH also partners with local startups and businesses to match them with potential students that can provide those services.
“[The space] will help them build out their portfolios and resumes and get actual, relevant work experience without having to apply to a job to get that experience,” Barron noted. “By adding businesses into the mix, now they are helped in solving their problems while students simultaneously are earning income and gaining experience.”
The PITCH’s official grand opening was in August of 2023 and as of right now, they have been building out their concept to reach its full supportive potential using money raised from hosting other events.
