Techstars Demo Day

imageI admit I have not been to all the Techstars Demo Day but I went this year for a few reasons.  Alex Iskold kept sending me emails of companies that he was looking at for this class so I felt engaged.  He asked me to come in and speak to the group and I had the pleasure of speaking to this class a few months ago.   I also loved that one of the people in the class sent this to me after I spoke.   I also really want to support Alex’s latest endeavor of heading up the Techstars program in NYC.

hullabaluThe pitches were well done.  Some made me feel a bit like Shark Tank with no panel to judge except for the audience.  I had zeroed in on two companies that I had spoken to prior to the pitches.  Hullabalu that has created interactive stories for kids.  I always said I wouldn’t invest in a kids business but never say never.  I am so impressed with Suzanne Xie and so I have committed to invest.

lynxsyThe other company I met with prior to the pitches was Lynxsy.  I just kept thinking about what they were building after we met.  It is a mobile platform that helps companies hire junior talent.   When I think about college students who can not figure out how to get a job in the blossoming tech community I think there is an opportunity there.  It shouldn’t be costly or take so much time and energy to find young hires.   Lynxsy is working on that solution.

The other companies that graduated this week were Codestarter, a non-profit hoping to give every child the opportunity to code.  The first non-profit that Techstars has ever put through the program.

Infinit, an app that allows you to send files of unlimited size in a matter of seconds.  Concert Window is an online music venue where musicians broadcast live shows.  Makers Kit is a do-it-yourself kits with instructional tools now sold in a retail stores.  Matter.io is a flexible manufacturing tool for the next generation of designers, makers and creative businesses.  Pathgather which is a new approach to help enterprise businesses allow employees to share and connect inside their own company.  Rival Theory is an artificial intelligence for digital characters that can learn, interact and play with you across apps and games.  Social Sign.in enables businesses to leverage their guests with free WiFi.  Standard Analytics makes the worlds science research accessible through an API.  Tutum is a new type of cloud computing service that uses a container application.

 

 

Comments (Archived):

  1. William Mougayar

    It was a great event indeed. I was impressed with the quality of the crowd (maybe ~1000?) who attended the Techstars demo day- almost the who’s who of the NY tech startup scene.And as a mentor for that cohort, I can attest to the quality of all these companies as I had the opportunity to interact with them.

    1. Gotham Gal

      it was an impressive turnout.

    2. Alex Iskold

      William, thank you for all your help and support during the program.

  2. Alex Iskold

    Joanne, thank you for the wonderful re-cap and thank you for being a supporter of me personally and Techstars. This class worked really hard in the last 3 months and I think what you saw on Demo Day is the result of their hard work.Demo Days as you know are somewhat arbitrary milestones in the life of a company. I told the class that this is the beginning of new and exciting chapter of their lives. I am really glad that you get to be part of 2 those journeys from now on.