About the Show\n <\/p>\n
All People Powered Concert & Pitch Contest<\/p>\n
The boundary between art and entrepreneurship dissolves as the \u201cAll People Powered\u201d Concert & Pitch Competition transforms the Henry J. into both a concert hall and investment stage. This first-of-its-kind event fuses live performances from the acclaimed hip-hop musical\u00a0Co-Founders\u00a0with a live startup accelerator that will award $30,000 in funding to first-time entrepreneurs\u2014on stage, in front of an audience! Think\u00a0Soul Beat\u00a0meets\u00a0Shark Tank\u00a0powered by Oakland creativity and community ambition.<\/p>\n
Championed by Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee after seeing\u00a0Co-Founders\u00a0(twice!) during its sold-out 2025 world premiere at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), this one-day-only event will bring the fictional “All People Powered” accelerator to life; offering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to investors traditionally overlooked by Silicon Valley, translating culture into capital, and directing funding toward first-time entrepreneurs who are shaping a more inclusive and innovative future.<\/p>\n
THE FORMAT
Early-stage Bay Area entrepreneurs are invited to apply to the \u201cAll People Powered\u201d Accelerator, with the top 10 applicants being narrowed to 3 winners by the selection committee. All three winners will go through a multi-week program of mentorship and pitch refinement designed by Hiiiwav (co-creators of Oakland Tech Week), before pitching their startups to a panel of notable judges, competing for investment funding awarded on the spot, live at the Henry J! Between pitches, the audience will experience live musical performances featuring songs from\u00a0Co-Founders, alongside special Bay Area musical guests who embody the region’s rich hip-hop, soul, and R&B traditions.<\/p>\n
ABOUT\u00a0CO-FOUNDERS
Co-Founders\u00a0is an original hip-hop musical that follows Oakland coder Esata as she navigates Silicon Valley’s startup world while fighting to save her community from displacement. Blending Bay Area hip-hop with soul, gospel, funk, jazz, and innovative visual technology, the show explores who gets to build the future\u2014and at what cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About the Show All People Powered Concert & Pitch Contest The boundary between art and entrepreneurship dissolves as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-163176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}