Last Saturday SVE’s monthly startup contest Pitch Demo Day was successfully hosted at InnoSpring. We got a great turnout of 150 around people showing up! 7 selected startups pitched in front of a judge panel consists of 4 investors. Everyone enjoyed the event!
- Winner’s Intro
Groopie, Inc: Groopie is a place where you can create shows with groups of friends.
“We have developed a mobile first platform that brings vlogging to a collaborative social era. Groopie is the only place that lets you create shows with your friends and share stories together. Everyone part of a show can contribute to the story with their unique perspectives and social experiences, from anywhere in the world. Unlike YouTube, the recording and editing tools are part of the user experience, and simple enough for anyone to achieve TV-style production. With Groopie you can send someone a record request and shoot an episode using two cameras from two locations. Our editing studio lets you merge footage by choosing which camera angles you want to create one continuous video. Finally, titles and subtitles can be added to any part of an episode, giving viewers and content creators a reality TV like experience. Groopie adds a fun, social dynamic that is essential for engaging mobile users.”
Founder & CEO: Fuad Hawit
Fuad Hawit is the Founder and CEO of Groopie, Inc., where he has been leading design and product development from its inception. Fuad brings high energy and a fearless drive, motivating his team to achieve success and greatness while ensuring that everyone shares the same vision. Prior to undertaking his own venture, Fuad co-founded Mixberry Media as a technology sales and business development executive, where he structured new business opportunities, strategic alliances, partnerships and the sales process. In 2009, he co-founded Monica, the first virtual assistant iPhone app to use voice recognition (before Siri). Fuad holds a B.S. in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing Management from California State University.
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- Runner-ups Intro:
iSmart Alarm, Inc.: iSmartAlarm is making the best smartphone enabled home system and connected home system.
iSmart Alarm, Inc. is a leader in the DIY Home Security market and an innovator in the Internet of Things (IoT). The iSmartAlarm ecosystem was created to be the first smartphone-controlled do-it-yourself (DIY) home security solution that is easily portable, easy to set up, requires no wiring, and gives the user the opportunity to protect their home intelligently. There are no monthly fees, no subscription fees, and no long-term contracts as would be expected from older, traditional systems. The iSmartAlarm communicates through the user’s smartphone, giving access to monitoring, system control, and statistics to increase the safety of home, property, and family. Revolutionary in the home security space, iSmartAlarm provides the whole family the ability to integrate with the free iPhone and Android Apps and remotely arm, disarm, and monitor the security system from their cell phone, from anywhere, in real time. Currently iSmartAlarm products are available at tier-1 online retailers such as Apple, Amazon, Walmart, Newegg and smarthome, etc as well as “Brick and Mortor” such as Fry’s Electronics and Micro Center, etc.
Co-Founder & CEO: Raymond Meng
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Flow State Media: MIT/Zynga casual gaming studio with strong live, mobile multiplayer game engine
Strong team: CEO: Zynga, Activision, Call of Duty, Rockstar Games. MIT MBA, CompSci degree from Penn.
CTO: 20th Zynga Employee. Original Zynga Poker and FarmVille developer. Client/server/web/mobile experience. 20+ yrs making games.
Head of Product: Zynga 4.5 yrs. 8 games launches, 6 mobile, 2 MIT degrees. 4 more artists & developers each with 15-20 yrs game development experience. Most in Philippines keeping our dev costs a small fraction of US developers.
Strong traction: 750k installs via organic growth and several Facebook App Center Features. No marketing spent yet. Live crossword game “Letter UP” generates $29 ARPPU and $.24 ARPU (12x better than average Facebook ARPU). 3M+ games played on Facebook and growing. Long-term retention: June 2013 installers still contribute 15% of monthly revenues in 2014. Players average 1/hr a day, twice the competition. Generating $5k+/month. Net monthly burn is only $17k/month. Tops in terms of “quality per dollar spent”.
Presented by Kahn Jekarl, CEO at Flow State Media
Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs & Startups 