Start Peninsula’s third Micro Pitch of the year took place Wednesday, September 23. Ten companies had three minutes to pitch and two minutes of questions. Three earned $500 and a seat at the championship pitch on November 11, 2026, where $5,000 is on the line.

The point of the night was not polish. It was whether each founder could make the problem, the offer, and the next step clear under time.

The three companies that advanced

Build Creatively comes out of more than ten years designing pitch decks, branding, and websites. The company has just launched a platform for startups to DIY their pitch deck, define their branding, and streamline their marketing efforts.

Peake Shores built the SandClaw, a designed and patented tool for removing 4″ x 4″ and 6″ x 6″ posts from beach sand. The product is meant to replace the usual method—bear-hugging the post, straining the lower back, injuring a shoulder or hand—by letting a user pull the post straight up. Beach volleyball posts also require hardware access near the top: net straps, tensioning cables, and hooks. A separate ladder or step stool is impractical on unstable sand and adds the risk of sinking, tipping, or slipping. SandClaw’s friction-engaged step lets a user reach that hardware without a ladder. Invented by a beach volleyball player for beach volleyball players, the same approach—the PostClaw—is also positioned for homeowners and landscapers pulling fence posts, deck supports, and garden stakes; real estate and events pulling signposts, tent stakes, and parking markers; farmers and ranchers pulling T-posts, silt fences, and electric fence stakes; and marine and coastal users pulling pier pilings, sand anchors, and walkway supports.

Test Me! Lab Solutions is a Hampton Roads mobile drug-testing company offering DOT-compliant C/TPA services for employers and a women’s wellness panel called The Her Panel. The Her Panel is designed to give women direct access to comprehensive lab testing without a doctor’s referral. The company serves trucking companies and other employers across the region and brings clinical-grade testing to where people already are. Its mobile model is built around cost, access, and inconvenience—the barriers that keep people, especially women, from getting health information. Test Me! is building its B2B employer client base and preparing to launch The Her Panel as a standalone consumer offering for women in the Hampton Roads market.

The other seven companies that pitched

Asha House is an integrated wellness destination designed to make prioritizing health more convenient, accessible, and sustainable. Movement, recovery, nourishment, and community sit under one roof so guests are not assembling a healthy routine from separate places. The project is being developed in Hampton Roads with a long-term vision of a scalable wellness hospitality brand that can expand into additional East Coast markets.

Compass and Code Collective LLC, operating as Compass & Code Hospitality, is a performance-driven RV asset management company that turns underutilized RVs into income-producing short-term rental assets. Revenue comes from occupied nights and high-margin add-on systems, using trained operators and standardized processes. Cash flow is then reinvested into long-term real estate assets.

College Prep Golf Academy is an online platform where the college coaches who make recruiting decisions teach junior golfers and their parents how the process actually works. The company is based on the Virginia Peninsula. Classes cover how coaches evaluate players, what happens to emails, when coaches are allowed to contact families, and how the money works—instruction, not marketing players to coaches. The first online series is in production with the Division III men’s golf coach at Christopher Newport University.

Lotus Love Digital Solutions makes AI usable for small business owners who cannot afford to hire a project manager or AI specialist. The work is organized in three steps: AI training courses live on Eventbrite, hands-on consulting that implements AI and project-management systems clients actually use, and an AI agent currently in development meant to give small businesses project-manager-level execution without the headcount.

The Gentleman Florist is building an owner/operator-style franchise model for flower shops. The stated mission is elegance in service and quality. The vision is several store locations between Smithfield, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Moyock, and Virginia Beach. Revenue channels include weddings, events, retail services, after-hours vending machines, and monthly subscriptions for commercial and residential clients.

SoulLift Medical Transport LLC was created after thirteen years of work as a registered nurse and seeing patients return to the hospital not because treatment failed, but because they could not get to follow-up appointments. The company will provide transportation for dialysis patients, recently discharged individuals, and people with mobility challenges who depend on consistent care.

Grow Pros LLC designs, builds, and installs premium, ready-to-grow garden systems for homeowners who want a garden but may lack the time, knowledge, tools, or confidence to build one themselves. Standardized Starter, Family, and Homestead packages combine durable cedar garden products, irrigation, soil preparation, companion planting, and planned crop selections into one professionally installed system, ready to grow from day one.

What this qualifier does

Start Peninsula runs four Micro Pitches each year. Three companies advance from each event. Micro Pitch 3 fills the third block of the 2026 championship field.

Micro Pitch 4 is October 21, 6:00–8:00 p.m. The championship pitch is November 11, 2026.