The Nexus of 2024

Go Seattle! The Innovate 100 Pitch Slam at pii2010

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by

jon
in

pii2010 logopii2010 (privacy identity innovation) got off to a fine start yesterday with a great opening reception and the Innovate 100 Seattle Pitch Slam.  While a few of the participants were from the Bay Area, Seattle-area startups Optify, InternMatch, and Pathable took the top three spots, with Tweetajob and IdeaScale also representing well.  Go Seattle!

And props to the Innovate 100 team and pii2010 for getting a more diverse group of participants than we often see in events like this.  As well as good racial diversity, two of the speakers were women — quite a contrast to the all-male feel of TechStars, Y Combinator, or last spring’s NWEN First Look Forum.

Shameless plug: speaking of the First Look Forum, we’ve extended the application deadline for the fall event to August 23.  If you’re an early-stage startup, please check it out!  If you’re thinking of applying, there’s some tips here and here.

The pitch slam started with a one-minute “Quick Pitch” competition, with Secret123, Puzzazz, Open Mobile, aNEWSme, wishpot, and InternMatch competing for the last open spot in the finals.  I was impressed by how well most of the presenters conveyed what they were doing in just 60 seconds.  The crowd went wild after InternMatch’s dramatic reveal at the end of their minute: the person giving the presentation was actually an intern!  Gotta love that.   So it wasn’t at all surprising that they moved on to the finals.

And a lot of people I talked to thought InternMatch should have been the overall winners as well.  Nothing against Optify, but I really felt like they shouldn’t have been allowed into the competition: they’ve already raised $2.1 million from Madrona, where their CEO used to be a venture capitalist.*  Ah well.  Such is life.

InternMatch’s business is matching students with internships.  In his five-minute presentation their CEO Andrew Maguire made some great points about the strategic importance of interns and why the area’s so ripe for reinvention.  They’ve got a large pilot in Washington State that’s going well, and the very young founding team clearly gets the challenge from the interns’ perspective.  One big question they’ll face is what prevents Monster.com or another large company from getting into the space.  On the other hand that’s also an opportunity: if they can get out there and establish their brand and technology, they could be a very tempting acquisition target.  During the presentation, Cathy Brooks tweeted that Andrew is somebody to watch, and I certainly agree.

Tweetajob is another company with an impressive CEO facing a similar challenge/opportunity.  Carmen Hudson (a former recruiter at Amazon, Starbucks, and Microsoft) summed up how Twitter really changes the game for job searches both for companies and for job seekers — and how much people on Twitter dislike “job spam”.   She describes their technology as being uniquely able to get people information on the jobs that they’re interested in, and applying more broadly than just Twitter.  If so, they’ve got a chance to carve out a nice business, or perhaps be a key feature for a larger company.

So, a very good event. Sarterus has videos, and my tweetstream has some details if you scroll back.

pii2010 continues today and tomorrow; if you can’t be there in person, you can follow along on the #pii2010 hashtag.  Seattle Geek Week goes on through the weekend, and the hashtag is #seagw.  Stay tuned!

jon

* a good example of yet another way that it’s easier for guys to get funding then women.

Comments

7 responses to “Go Seattle! The Innovate 100 Pitch Slam at pii2010”

  1. jon Avatar
    jon

    Oops, didn’t mean to undercut the Bay Area companies. A few highlights:

    – Ginsu Yoon of Bynamite had the most-tweeted remark of the event, and a great graphic to go with it: “”the people who tell you privacy is dead all have benefit from it being dead”.

    – Evil genius Pete Kazanjy had a great description of Unvarnished: “If LinkedIn and Yelp had a baby, it would be us.”

    – Mary Kay Hoal of Yoursphere gave the most passionate presentation, talking about child safety on social networks both from her perspective as founder and as a mom, although I agreed with judge Fran Maier’s skepticism about whether they needed to start up a separate non-profit. Fran’s President of TRUSTe, which started in the 90s as a non-profit before becoming a venture-funded startup, so has some good perspectives here.

    Reply
  2. Cathy Brooks Avatar
    Cathy Brooks

    A nice overview of last night’s event, Jon … I’m duly impressed with the entrepreneurial muscle here in Seattle. I look forward to getting to know the community here!

    Reply
  3. Cathy Brooks Avatar
    Cathy Brooks

    As an aside, the Claire Cain Miller article you reference in your post garnered some real heat from the women of Silicon Valley. No question that there are fewer women in tech. No question that getting funding can be more challenging for an array of reasons. That said, there were many (myself included) who felt the article was full of terrible holes – namely the fact that it focused on a very small percentage of women who I fondly refer to as the glass ceiling whiners. Yes there’s a glass ceiling. Yes there are challenges for women. But in focusing on the problem, the problem becomes the thing. My advice to women is – know there’s a glass ceiling – and carry glass cutters in your back pocket.

    Reply
  4. jon Avatar
    jon

    Thanks for the comments, Cathy, and it was great meeting you at pii2010. Agreed about the vibrancy of the Seattle tech scene!

    I added an update to the other comment mentioning that a lot of women (including you) felt the article was full of terrible holes. I don’t know any of the women the article focused on so have no idea whether they’re whiners or not. And I totally agree about carrying glass cutters in your back pocket — and rocks to throw, and a blowtorch hot enough to melt the glass, etc. etc. etc.

    That said, I do think it’s important to focus on the problem as well as solutions. The tech industry’s image of itself as a “meritocracy” leads to a lot of denial about the structural issues that work against women, blacks, Latinos, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. So I see it as important to challenge that at the systemic level as well as breaking through individual ceilings.

    Optify’s CEO had a huge advantage in the funding process by virtue of having been at Madrona: he could get in the door, he knew what VCs are looking for in the plan, he was a known and trusted quantity, because of his added credibility it was easier to attract a top-tier management team. Less than a year after starting, they were able to land $2.75M from Seattle’s top-tier investors. And no wonder: they’ve got a solid business plan in a big market and are executing well. Props to them, and props to the investors who seem like they’ve made a very good bet.

    Given the demographics of the VC industry, a ridiculously high percentage of the people who have those kind of advantages are male. Unless investors take active steps to counter this, most of the money will continue to go to the white guys. But it’s really hard for people in the system to see that. So even though the article I linked to could have been a lot better, I think there’s a lot of value when it shows up in the New York Times.

    jon

    PS: blast from the past department: while writing this response, I looked at Optify’s funding press release, and discovered that one of their investors was Marc Friend. Back in the 1990s, when my early-stage startup Intrinsa was looking for seed funding, he was the associate at USVP we worked with as they became our lead investor 🙂

    Reply
  5. Cathy Brooks Avatar
    Cathy Brooks

    Ah yes, you mean the “Old Boy’s Network”, the foundation on which the lockerroom conversations, golf course deals and handshakes over men’s only club martini lunches have been forged for men in business since … well, business began? Yes, there has been an historic advantage for men – both in the sheer numbers game (just more guys in business than women statistically speaking) as well as the fact that the methods and means for striking deals and forging relationships have been born of places that catered to that demographic. No doubt this is changing, and the other interesting thing is the way in which women are crafting their own “club” environments – WITI, Girls in Tech, the soon to be launched TechMavens (Seattle-based and announcing Saturday at Gnomedex!) and any number of focused groups (including several old school listservs, Google Groups and email lists) started by and exclusively allowing women now exist through which women can support each other, mentor and bolster our numbers.

    These are all great, however, I would posit that in addition to having such niche focused groups there must also be more horizontally oriented organizations and outlets that are not solely for women but that branch out.

    As a “minority” speaking only within your group ultimately does nothing. Well, not nothing, because it does create solidarity and strength. However, to break across discrimination and gain true progress it requires alliances ACROSS boundary lines.

    Not to get political, but let’s look at the civil rights movement or even today’s LGBT equality efforts the major progress on those fronts has come when the specific group looks to the majority numbers, gains alliance and then leverages the alliance to grow.

    Reply
  6. InternMatch (the Darkhorse) Takes Runner Up at Prestigious Innovate 2010 / Pii Pitch Competition « InternMatch Blog

    […] more news from the Innovate 2010 event shortly, and in the meantime check out Brian Rowe’s coverage of the event and videos of the different pitches on […]

    Reply
  7. jon Avatar
    jon

    Cathy,

    I think it’s all important (and I’m not saying that just to be diplomatic). Womens-only networks play an important role; so do spaces for feminists, womanists, and allies. As you point out the battles need to be fought and won in the broader sphere. Reading back through that other thread it highlights the high-profile attention this issue’s drawing, which is an important step.

    Thanks for the discussion — looking forward to hearing you at the Women Who Tech telesummit!

    jon

    Reply

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