7 Innovative Startups. 4 Venture Capitalist Judges. 1 Winner.
Whose pitch has what it takes to be named this year's Startup to Watch?
Join us for Tech in Motion's Inaugural "Startups to Watch" showcase event to hear live pitches from up and coming entrepreneurs that are disrupting their industries. Tune in to hear their ideas, learn how to craft a compelling pitch, get inspired, and even weigh in yourself!
- Each startup will have 5 minutes to pitch LIVE to a panel of top Venture Capitalists, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A
- Each pitch will be ranked by the panel and the top 3 with the highest scores will move on to the final round
- Our top 3 will have 5 more minutes to pitch, followed by 5 minutes of audience Q&A
- The startups will be ranked again and a winner will be named a Top Startup to Watch!
Benjamin David Novak’s corporate practice focuses on equity financings, debt financings, corporate governance, securities matters, and mergers and acquisitions. He represents emerging growth companies in the US and abroad in various industries including technology and life sciences, as well as, angel investors, private equity firms, and venture capital funds.
Adam O'Donnell runs Startup Partnerships for North America at Zendesk. Previously he worked as an investment associate at a Silicon Valley VC (investors in Airbnb, Amplitude, etc.), where we reviewed 2000+ high-growth startups. Before investing, Adam founded 2x B2B SaaS companies (1 exit, 1 failed). Adam lives in San Francisco, and in his free time runs a podcast called TheTop.VC, where he has interviewed VCs from Mayfield, 500 Startups, Techstars, and more.
Ana Chaud is CEO of Lodestar, a Bay Area based accelerator that helps startups scale, grow and raise capital effectively. She is also the Principal of Chaud &Co., where she helps founders become successful CEOs through leadership development and corporate strategy.
Prior, she built a thriving management consulting practice in San Francisco, working with small and mid-sized companies to streamline Operations and Financial Management. In 2004, she started Garden Bar, the first fast casual salad concept in the NW. She grew, scaled and sold it, in a span of five years. Ana was a finalist for the OEN Tom Hulce Entrepreneurship Award, which recognizes the most influential entrepreneurs in Oregon.
Helen Liu is a co-founder of Seven Industries Capital, a deep tech-focused venture fund. Ms. Liu is also a partner at Third Wave Ventures, where she has been responsible for investor relations, capital raising, and deal flow generation across technology sectors. Based in Los Angeles, Third Wave manages venture investments focused on deep tech companies in semiconductors, solid state display and lighting, solar energy and other clean energy, machine vision and AI, wireless communication and IoT. Helen has more than 20 years of combined experience in venture capital and large-scale software development. She is highly adept at sourcing/managing venture projects, recruiting/coaching top-talent
and structuring strategic partnerships.
Boston-based C. Light Technologies, Inc. is a neurotech and artificial intelligence company that tracks retinal (back of the eye/front of brain) movements less than 1/100th of a human hair. With their own proprietary scanning laser ophthalmoscope--the “Retitrack”--C. Light analyzes miniature eye movements with AI, a very different approach to eye tracking from other technologies on the market which measure pupil movement. C. Light’s device is 120x more accurate than pupil trackers sold commercially today and 1000x more than webcams and phone cameras. The scan takes 10 seconds with no dilation or patient discomfort required.
C. Light’s biomarker platform could transform how we assess neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis, as well as brain injuries such as concussions, allowing for early detection (when more treatment options could be available), and more objective ways to measure if therapies are working or not.
By combining sequencing with machine learning, Divergene can extract the most information of what is yet to come in the precision medicine field. Through using our proprietary technology we are able to solve many of the pain points in the gene therapy space such as gene-editing specificity and sensitivity. Our actionable reports provide stakeholders with key points to inform their clinical and pre-clinical trials.
We provide leading biotechnology companies with quantitative and qualitative information regarding mutations in their gene delivery and/or gene-editing systems essential to assess the effectiveness of medical countermeasures. Our valuable reports allow scientists to detect new therapeutic targets for molecular assays and track side effects that may lead to reduced specificity/efficacy of existing assays. Our market-product alignments based on existing and prospective customers are helping guide the future of precision medicine.
bluShift Aerospace provides dedicated, sustainable rocket launches using a low-cost custom hybrid engine and proprietary biofuel to solve long launch delays and lack of destination control for small satellite researchers and commercial businesses, providing shorter wait times, more frequency, more control and a sustainable launch solution.
Using advanced immersive technologies, we empower our users to explore and understand the world around them.
Land surveying & tower management require several different technologies that take 16+ hrs/acre & 4hrs+/tower to gather data, plus additional days for analysis. Beagle has engineered an all-in-one solution that collects and analyzes aerial data to produce results for the end user in real-time.
MobilFlex is a fabless semiconductors company that designs LOT - LAN of Things accelerators, innovative I/O sub-systems that
(a) complete the infrastructure on the last thirty yards by unifying all currently disjoint sub-networks (data, entertainment, automation) and "things" into a "LAN of Things" that allow up to 16 M2M concurrent transactions between any connected devices, regardless of their native communication protocol and medium;(b) Improve x86 architecture by eliminating the wasted compute power (up to 38% or much more in I/O heavy IOT environments) generating more than 3x processing power, with no increase in BOM.
They allow systems integrators build the PDC - Personal Data Center, meaningfully diversified edge systems and appliances that make the promise of IOT, AI and edge computing a practical reality to all, consumers, families, small business, smart xyz applications, etc.
HairDays is an AI-powered health data company offering a first-in-kind hair intelligence platform that takes the guesswork out of hair classification, care, and product use. Currently solving the challenges of diverse hair and scalp health, HairDays makes hair health insights available to all, matching consumers with suitable products and hair care regimens for their unique hair profile & goals. Its artificial intelligence technologies are transforming how the $300B+ hair health value chain operates - with its platform allowing anyone to just take a picture and receive robust analytics on hair health, care regimen, and recommended care products.
