July/Aug Startupalooza Results

The judges were impressed with the high quality of pitches at the July 25th event.

Winner: Flower Turbines - vertical windpower with aggregation leverage

  

Here is an explanation of how the investors ranked the top picks based on our textbook Are You Fundable? 

  

Background

When Investors look at a startup up they value the idea and the entrepreneur at a ratio of roughly 40% (idea) to 60% (entrepreneur/management).

  

When we ask Investors to rank Startups, they are looking at the idea and then the presentation to help determine their estimate of the management and their likelihood to execute.

  

The Entrepreneur estimate is a hierarchy described in Are You Fundable?  

  

The Idea evaluation is generally based on a 3 dimensional model we call the 3 Bills, that asks:

  

Bill #1. How many uses are there for this idea? (From William Whewell’s Theory of Induction)

  

Bill # 2. What is the simplest useful expression of this idea? (Occam Razor’s or William of Occam’s Law of Simplicity)

  

Bill #3. Who will pay the bill for it? (Does it serve an investor with high growth/returns, a sponsor or strategic partner- and how much?) 

RESULTS

Winner: Flower Turbines - vertical windpower with aggregation leverage
This is clearly a powerful idea - assuming the patents check out under due diligence. The question is one of execution. Can the entrepreneur, coming from an academic environment, assemble a management team that can roll this out? (Bill #1 and #2 are well covered, but Bill #3 is an open question.)

Runners Up:

Potboiler – visually optimized books for mobilephones
The pitch focused on creating custom, self tested content instead of a publishing platform for proven
content. Management complicated this assessment by virtue of having a tech rather than publishing background. (Bill#1 is good Bill #2 is questionable and Bill #3 therefore challenged.)

Celebdare –crowdfunding site based on publicity challenges
This is all about Bill # 2 – a simple, catchy idea. But where do you go with this (Bill #1)? And that puts pressure on Bill #3 – as in, who will pay for it?

90Grand – Hotel loyalty program with premium photographs
This is all about Bill #2 and #3 – a simple idea that is well paid for by sponsors and customer upsell. But where do you go with this (Bill #1)? For that reason, investors see this as a good business but one with an inherent limitation.


We hope you will be joining us again on September 10th.

ENTREPRENEUR	AVERAGE	IDEA	PRESN	FUNDABILITY
90Grand	22	7	7.714285714	7.333333333
Ameizen LLC	17.57142857	5.857142857	5.888888889	5.5
Anonygo	14.16666667	6	5.5	5.4
CelebDare	18.66666667	6.5	6.571428571	5.666666667
Central E inc	11.33333333	5.2	4.4	3.5
Digital Oxygen Corporation	10.66666667	6.5	5	4.5
ebindle Inc.	17.83333333	6	6.375	5.5
Flower Turbines	23.42857143	8.285714286	8.142857143	7
ideaphore	13	6	5.8	4.75
Just Keep Moving Fitness	21	7	7.8	6.25
Live Dating Advice	18	6	6.25	5.75
MusicSUBMIT LLC	18.5	6	6	6.5
MySportsore	19	6.6	6.333333333	5.8
Package Park	14.6	5	4.5	3.6
Potboiler LLC	21.83333333	7.333333333	7.428571429	7.166666667
See	11.2	5.5	5.2	3.5
WasteGate LLC	15.6	5.4	5.833333333	4.6
Wonderreel/The Center for Intentional Media	20.66666667	7.5	6.714285714	6.333333333
Woxxer, Inc.	13.33333333	6.4	7	6.8