Boston May 2013 – Pitch Contest Winners

The winners of this month’s Ultra Light Startups Boston pitch contest are…

First Place

Chris Bolman
ZoomTilt

Second Place

Nick Zeckets
Quadwrangle

Third Place

Joseph Raccuglia
Agency Spotter

 

A big Thank You! goes out to Boston’s expert Panelists!

Zaid Ashai

Joe Caruso

Brett Garrett

Jennifer Jordan

Panelists (alphabetic order)

• Zaid Ashai (@zaidashai) – General Partner at Point Judith Capital
• Joe Caruso (@joecaruso2020) – Founder at Bantam Group
• Brett Garrett (@brettgarrett) – Principal at Bain Capital Ventures
• Jennifer Jordan (@jajordan13) – VP at MassVentures, MD at GoldenSeeds

Congratulations to Jennifer Jordan  for being voted the Audience’s Choice for Best Panelists!

Complete Startup Pitch List:

1. Joseph Raccuglia – Agency Spotter
2. John Langton – VisiTrend
3. Zachariah Reiner – LaundryPost
4. Elizabeth Keyser – Evoncea
5. Nick Zeckets – Quadwrangle
6. Ethan Bagley – USpin.me
7. Fabrizio Filippini – Trovare – Amico Bracelets
8. Chris Bolman – ZoomTilt

Boston January 2013 – Pitch Contest Winners

The winners of the monthly Ultra Light Startups startup pitch contest were…

First Place

Luca Pinello
Lillipuz

 

Second Place

James Jones
Telix Networks

Third Place

Parviz Parvizi
Lighthouse Signal Systems

A big Thank You! goes out to Boston’s expert Panelists!

Greg Dracon

Bill Jacobson

Ian Mashiter

James Falkoff

Panelists (alphabetic order)

• Greg Dracon (@greg406), Principal at .406 Ventures
• James Falkoff (@jamesfalkoff), Analyst at Longworth Venture Partners
• Bill Jacobson (@instantbill), Co-Founder and CEO at Workbar and Partner at Tech Point Ventures
• Ian Mashiter (@ianmashiter), Entrepreneurial Educator at the Boston University School of Management and Executive in Residence, and a Member at LaunchPad Venture Group

Congratulations to Ian Mashiter for being voted the Audience’s Choice for Best Panelist!

Complete Startup Pitch List:

• Marco Morawec – Surfscore
• Parviz Parvizi – Lighthouse Signal Systems
• Luca Pinello – Lillipuz
• Jeff Tingle – TheraVid
• James Jones – Telix Networks
• Greg Kestin – The Guru Circle
• Tim White – Chrysalis Guitar Company, Inc.

[July 2011] Building a Valuable Online Community

Panel slides on Building a Valuable Online Community

Panel topics include:

• Community building case studies from the panel – Mashable, Etsy, Mediabistro.com, Forrst.
• The essentials of online communities – why do certain communities thrive while most fail?
• How is online community building different from offline community building?
• Scaling a community to new cities and new countries.
• What are the critical product design and technology considerations for building an online community?
• How important is the founder in a community? How to make the community thrive independently of the founder’s participation
• Making a community into a business – how to profit from community without alienating members.
• Community building safety tips – what to avoid
• And much more…

Hosts:

• Graham Lawlor (@generationg), Founder of Ultra Light Startups
• David Carlos, Founder of David Carlos Managed Information Architects

Panelists (alphabetic order):

Kyle Bragger

Chris Maguire

Brett Petersel

Laurel Touby

• Kyle Bragger (@kylebragger), Founder and Lead Developer at Forrst
• Chris Maguire (@revolvingdork), Co-Founder at Etsy, Postling, and Waffl
• Brett Petersel (@brett), Co-founder at The Community Manager, formerly Audience Manager at Mashable
• Laurel Touby (@laureltouby), Founder of Mediabistro.com

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[June 2011] Lead-Generation Revenue Models

Panel slides for Lead Generation Revenue Models

Panel topics include:

• Examples of lead-generation success stories
• What is lead-generation and how does it work? Sizing market opportunities.
• Who buys leads? How to find lead buyers?
• Definition of a “lead” – what are the essential components.
• How much is a lead worth?  What determines the value of a lead?
• Common methods of generating leads. The directory method, the arbitrage method, etc.
• Website design tips to maximize high-quality lead generation
• The latest techniques from by lead-gen pros.
• And much more…

Moderator:

• Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups

Introductory Keynote:

• Craig Rosenfeld, Chief Sales Officer at Clash Media

Panelists (alphabetic order):

Glenn Houck

Josh Reznick

Jay Weintraub

Rami Weiss

• Glenn Houck, Co-Founder at LeadQual
• Josh Reznick (@joshreznick) Founder & CEO at Datalot
• Jay Weintraub (@leadscon) Founder at LeadsCouncil and LeadsCon
• Rami Weiss, Founder at Boomerater and Co-founder of Tomazo

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[May 2011] Sales for Startups

Pitch contest winners – Talamu, Umagram, and Crane TV

Panel slides – Sales for Startups

Panel topics include:

• Startup sales successes and failures
• Product Market Fit and Customer Development
• When should a startup begin selling? Selling your product before it’s built
• Product positioning
• Understanding and managing a sales pipeline
• Lead generation and tracking
• Sales metrics (acquisition cost, lifetime value, etc) – why they are important and how to track
• Salespeople – when and how to hire effectively, how to compensate salespeople, when to fire
• CRM systems – essential functions, ultra-light products
• Sales calls and techniques (SPIN, Consultative, and Strategic selling) – why they are important and how to track
• And much more…

Moderator:

• Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups

Panelists (alphabetic order):

• Sean Black (@SeanBlack) Founder and CEO at SalesCrunch
• Kelley Boyd (@msksboyd) Principal at Think Experience
• Joe Chin (@JoeJChin) Founder and CEO at SourcePad
• Ben Kartzman (@benkartzman) Co-Founder and CEO at Spongecell

Sean Black

Kelley Boyd

Joe Chin

Ben Kartzman

[April 2011] Mobile App Startups

Pitch contest winners – Sonar, Pixable, and oGolf

Panel slides – Mobile App Startups

Panel topics include:

• Which companies and sectors within mobile app startups are the most profitable
• Revenue models for mobile apps – what works and what doesn’t
• Premium apps, mobile advertising, m-commerce, mobile content sales, in-app sales, etc
• Marketing mobile applications.  Dynamics of app store marketing and non app-store marketing
• Designing and building minimal viable mobile apps
• Selecting a mobile app development agency. Recruiting mobile talent.
• And much more…

Moderator:

• Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups

Panelists (alphabetic order):

• Nihal Mehta (@nihalmehta) Co-Founder and CEO at buzzd, General Partner at ENIAC Ventures
• Dan Melinger (@bionicdan) Co-Founder and CEO at Socialight, Founder/Organizer of Mobile Monday NY
• Greg Raiz (@graiz) Founder and CEO at Raizlabs
• Matthew Snyder (@matsnyder2001) Founder and CEO at ADO Strategies

Nihal Mehta

Dan Melinger

Greg Raiz

Matthew Snyder

UltraLight TV

Ultra Light TV was a live, web-based TV pilot that aired on Friday, March 18.

The show featured startup community news plus pitches and advice from the founders of successful online businesses. Panelists and guests are founder/CEO’s of technology and media companies that have achieved significant commercial success without external funding (ie by bootstrapping). Rather than being judged by the panel, the startups pitching will receive helpful, practical advice. This “real-time mentorship” was designed to be useful not only to the startups presenting, but also to the viewing audience.

Panelists

• Spencer Fry, Founder and CEO of Carbonmade (@spencerfry)
• Dennis Mortensen, Founder and CEO of Visual Revenue (@DennisMortensen)
• Laurel Touby, Founder and Senior Vice President of mediabistro.com (@laureltouby)

Startups

• Nick Veneris, Founder of Xomba.com (@NickVeneris)
• Lauren Porat, Co-founder of Urban Interns (@urbaninterns)
• David Bloom, Founder and CEO of Ordr.in Networks (@davidabloom)

Video

(recording beings at 19:35)

[March 2011] Seed Funding

David Cohen

Shai Goldman

Jeff Stewart

Mark Wachen

Panel topics include:

• When should you seek seed funding? What state should the company/concept/team be in?
• How do you determine who is appropriate to pitch to?
• What format and content is appropriate for a seed-funding pitch?
• What is the difference between an seed, angel, super-angel, and Series A funding?
• What are an entrepreneur’s biggest obstacles to getting funded?
• Seed funding technologies – AngelList, KickStarter, AngelSoft…
• Seed funding and mentoring programs – TechStars, Y Combinator, DreamIt, Founder Institute, Keiretsu Forum, angel groups…
• How is the venture capital and angel investment landscape expected to change in 2011?
• And much more…

Moderator:

• Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups

Panelists (alphabetic order):

• Murat Aktihanoglu (@muratny) Founder and General Partner at ER Accelerator
• David Cohen (@davidcohen) CEO and Founder of TechStars
• Owen Davis, Managing Director at NYC Seed
• Shai Goldman (@shaig) Director at Silicon Valley Bank
• Jeff Stewart (@urgentspeed) Founder of Mimeo.com, Urgent Group, and Urgent Ventures
• Mark Wachen, Managing Partner at DreamIt Ventures, Founder/CEO of Upstage Ventures

[February 2011] Engineering Viral Media

Greg Galant

Adam Pennenberg

Jonah Peretti

Michael Yavonditte

Topics include:

• What does it mean for media to be viral?
• Why does certain content “go viral” while other content does not?
• Can virality be deliberately “engineered” into a website or does it only happen by chance?
• What are the essential principles of user behavior, media, and technology for making content viral?
• How is virality measured? What metrics are worth tracking?
• Examples of startups successfully “engineered” to go viral
• Which social networks, API’s and services are most useful in engineering virality?
• And much more…

Moderator:

• Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups

Panelists (alphabetic order):

• Greg Galant, CEO of Sawhorse Media
• Adam Pennenberg, Professor of Journalism at NYU, Author of Viral Loop
• Jonah Peretti, Co-Founder of BuzzFeed and Huffington Post
• Michael Yavonditte, Founder & CEO of Hashable and Tracked.com

[January 2011] PR for Startups

Jim Bruni

Brian Cohen

Stacy Green

TJ Walker

Topics include:

• How to get influential bloggers, reporters and journalists to cover your startup
• Determining which blogs, magazines, newspapers and TV shows to target for your PR efforts
• Developing relationships with journalists
• Best practices on pitching your story
• Handling interviews – how to prepare, what to say, what to avoid
• Maximizing the business value of your press
• And much more…

Moderator:

• Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups

Keynote:

• David Dunne, Founder and CEO of Velocidi
  Previously COO of Edelman Digital

Panelists (alphabetic order):

• Jim Bruni, Owner of Bruni PR
  Previously Towers Perrin, Burson Marsteller, and RuderFinn PR
• Brian Cohen, Founder and President at iFluence PR
  Vice Chairman of New York Angels
• Stacy Green, Communications Director at Mashable
  Previously with New York Times
• TJ Walker, CEO of Media Training Worldwide
  Best-selling author and news commentator