The Last Day - Startup 2011

Crossing the country again I am back in New York specifically to visit the Startup 2011 conference.

This was a great day with a few interesting sessions but the real value came from the pitching competition and the people I met in the breaks.

Eight startups pitched for a cash prize of $25,000 judged by a panel of Angels and Venture Capitalists. The presenters were polished and well spoken, I was impressed. What really surprised me was that I probably wouldn't have called them startups! For example one company had invested $100,000 of their own money to develop a prototype then raised $250,000 from an investor to get to market followed by $750,000. They had thousands of users and considerable turnover. Surely $25k is not needed? I was expecting much earlier stage companies. The reason for pitching may not have been the prize money however as the companies were looking for further investment. I suspect  winning a competition like this would raise their profile. You can view the winner here - Quartzy wins Startup 2011 pitching competition...

They don't do things small here and the Angel/VC scene is very large and mature when compared to Australia. As one speaker said 'we are about hitting home runs not singles'. They play for keeps.


And so 6 weeks, 2 train journeys and 13 flights later the fellowship comes to an end (hang on, aren't I suppossed to destroy a ring or something?). I will head to LA now for my flight home then back to work on Monday. This has been such an amazing experience, I have seen so much and met some fantastic people that I intend to keep in touch with.

Thankyou to everyone who supported the trip, assisted with contacts and to those who took the time to meet with me during my time abroad. The next step is to summarise the findings in a report. I have 10 week to submit this and will post the link here once it is uploaded to the Churchill Trust's web site. Coming soon-ish...