the winners of this year's ESTC business idea contest 2008 are: innoraise (3.), D.O.O.M (2) & sindice (1.). congratulations! three things to take away from this year's contest: 1) prepare for your audience, 2) choose your name carefully & 3) show a demo.
innoraise' focused presentation made people following their lines. they explained the problem, market size, business model and the like. the audience feelt respected and taken serious. that always arrives well, regardless if it is a jury, a vc, a customer or a new employee. some competitors tried to reuse presentations that they had produced for other events. That did not work.D.O.O.M. gave a good presentation. they made it on the 2nd place by a focused business idea and through actually showing screenshots of their software. not insisting on taking the world over instantly helps. but simply showing what they did, made the point instantly. the name however, should be worth a reconsidertion.
sindice made their point - and to sell a kind of semantic meta api is not an easy job from the beginning - by showing a live demo. that's risky however briought involvement of the audience. showing what they did or can do with their project, simply transported the message.
standing up, presenting your ideas in front of colleauges, scientists, potential consumers & competitors and venture capitalists clearly payed off well.
pictures courtesy of wolfram anderle.
