Yesterday night at the Microsoft campus was a great edition of the Founder Showcase. The evening started with a tell-all keynote on freemium business models from Phil Libin, the founder of Evernote. He candidly shared information that is usually impossible to get, such as how many users convert to paying customers or how much it costs to serve the majority of users who only use the free service.
Then the real fun began: of the 12 startups pitching, there would only be one winner, determined jointly by the audience of 200 and the panel of VC judges, among which Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC and George Zachari of Charles River Venture. The rules: 3 minutes to pitch, then the judges score the presentation on a 1 to 5 scale (1 being very bad, 5 meaning they’d like to invest). Then the audience votes.
In the first round, 6 startups pitched and the first finalist emerged very quickly: Snap Shop(*). They impressed the audience with a strikingly simple demo. Virtual reality on your cell phone finally had a useful (and profitable) use. Buying furniture is now geeky again. Stay tuned as they launch very soon.
After a break, the last 6 startups pitched. The quality was even higher. Breakthrough demoed a very impressive platform for online mental health counseling. Given the stigma associated with mental health issues, going online makes a lot of sense. But it’s eVenues, which lets you book meeting places online, that qualified as the second finalist.
It was now time for the showdown: both finalists answered questions from the judges, which allowed the investors to dig deeper into their business model, how they planned on making money, and details of how the product worked.
By 11pm, it was time for the 4 judges to vote. eVenues got the first two votes, which guaranteed they couldn’t lose anymore. Then Snap Shop got the next vote. And the next. It was a tie (2-2)! That wasn’t planned, so Adeo, the organizer called for a show of hands, which wasn’t conclusive either: the audience was quite divided. Eventually, the judges judged the show of hands, and eVenues was declared the winner.
What an evening! A lot of very smart entrepreneurs and top-notch investors in the same room, very high-quality presentations, and a lot of fun. [Adeo, you get a 9 (out of 10)]. I’ll be attending the next Founder Showcase for sure.
(*) Disclaimer: I hope I have a vested interest in their success through my participation in the Founder Institute.
