Last week I attended the DreamIt Ventures New York City pitch day. This is one of those events where a group of “deer in the headlights” new entrepreneurs pitch investors to try and get them to fund the next stage of their fledgling companies.
There was an audience of over three hundred people while eleven startups took turns on stage for their ten minute presentations. As you might expect the people at DreamIt Ventures made sure these entrepreneurs had their presentations fine-tuned for perfection. They made every minute count and kept us all well entertained and informed.
The biggest eye-opener for me was that all the companies had working products. In the old days that was always the big unknown… Will the company be able to get a product on its legs? Now days with all the great technology available for creating web pages and mobile applications the product is first. And that’s the way it should be.
All eleven of the presentations were excellent. Any one of these could be a viable business within a year and maybe even someday get to the level of a Pinterest or LinkedIn.
Two companies jumped out at me as potentially hot properties in the not to distant future…
Picsell is a handy mobile application or web page that you can use to sell your stuff. You take three pictures, write a description, then click to send it to the smart people at picsell. Within twenty-four hours they tell you how much they can sell it for. If you agree they take care of all the headaches of selling the product on eBay, Amazon, or Rakuten. The sell it then send you a post paid mailing label to get to to the buyer then send you your cash minus their 15% fee. What could be an easier way to clean out your attic?
Slidebean is a way for people to create PowerPoint-type presentations online. “The simplest way to create beautiful presentations. Focus on your content. Slidebean handles the rest.” This is a free service with a paid upgrade available. It appears to be a great way to quickly put together nice presentations. The company claims to be gaining some traction in the educations market where students and educators are looking for quick ways to make classroom presentations.
