Apply
Founder Institute Image

Last Thursday, over 300 people gathered in Silicon Valley for the 9th Founder Showcase, hosted by TheFunded.com and the Founder Institute.

At the event, 8 companies competed on stage in a free pitch competition, and taking the Grand Prize was Michael Mayernick and Spinnakr - a service for displaying targeted messaging on your website based on the specific audience segments. Spinnakr graduated from the Washington D.C. Founder Institute, and is also in the current 500 Startups class. Here is the video of their winning pitch;

 

 

 

 

Coming in an extremely close second place was Kloudless, a service for managing all of your stuff across the cloud and devices. Their pitch can be seen below; 

 

All in all, it was a very impressive slate of contenders. Others who presented include:

  • Appsperse - Appsperse is a cross promotion platform for mobile applications.
  • Gickup - An easy to use video chat gaming platform
  • IndustryGraph - A local sales & support channel for B2B cloud services
  • JetJaw - The proactive way to protect & promote your brand
  • PetHub - Award-winning technology to keep pets safe
  • Zoko - Kickstarter for parties
  • Demo Table Competition Winner 1: ClientMagnet
  • Demo Table Competition WInner 2: TagSeats
  • Demo Table Competition Winner 3: Breezy
 
And of course, a special thanks goes out to our great Judging Panel; 
 

Scott Hartley, Venture Investor, Mohr Davidow Ventures

Scott is a venture capitalist at MDV focused on mobile and consumer Internet. He has worked at Google, Facebook, and Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He is interested in disruptive platforms that can address issues he has observed working on five continents, and at the White House and United Nations.

 

Bruce Taragin, Managing Director, Blumberg Capital

Bruce has 20 yrs experience as a VC, entrepreneur, banker and attorney. Prior to Blumberg, he co-founded and held management positions within many companies, including Charles River Computers. Past investments include ZipZapPlay, eVoice, PureSight, IP Infusion, GO Networks, and Siperian - all of which were acquired.

 

Matthew B. McCall, Partner, New World Ventures

Matthew McCall is a Partner at NWV and co-founder of DFJ Portage Venture Partners. His investments include Apptera, BrightTag, Cognitive Concepts, Facebook, Feedburner, Performics, Playdom, Siimpel and TicketsNow. He was an AlwaysOn Top 100 VC in the US, and writes the popular blog, VCConfidential.

 

George Zachary, General Partner, Charles River Ventures

George joined CRV in 2004, bringing more than 17 rs of operating and investing experience in computing and consumer technology. He focuses on building services and software technology companies, and he's led CRV's investments in Twitter, Yammer, Millennial Media, Cloudshare, Geni, SocialMedia, Metaplace, and Scribd.

 

Dave McClure, Founding Partner, 500 Startups

Dave McClure is a greedy venture capitalist & founding partner at 500 Startups, an internet startup seed fund and incubator program in Mountain View, CA. Dave has  worked with companies such as PayPal, Mint, Founders Fund, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Twilio, Simply Hired, O'Reilly Media, Intel, & Microsoft.

 

Thanks to everyone who attended! The next event will take place on April 24th in San Francisco, and tickets will go on sale shortly. 

Related Insights

More insights
Founder Institute Image
Events

9 Expert Advice on Fundraising You Wish You Knew Earlier (webinar highlights)

By Emiliya Strahilova on Sep 26, 2023
Founder Institute Image
Events

Founder Institute UAE - Meetup at in5 Tech on 13 & 20th March 2021

By Sameer Sortur on Mar 05, 2021
Founder Institute Image
Events

The Ultimate Playbook for Building High Performing Boards

By Sergio Escobar on Jul 14, 2020

Are you ready to apply to the world's largest pre-seed accelerator?

Apply to the Program