8:34 am — Less than half an hour to go. Lots of excitement.
8:58 am – A little late start. Traffic on 101 (this happens every year!)
9:20 am — Full house! Welcome by ANZA CEO Viki Forrest. “This year we have Australian innovation at every level.”
9:21 am — Viki introduces the judging panel — John Dyson (Starfish Ventures), Eliane Fiolet (Ubergizmo), Simon Anderson (Pictage). This is the first year the Gateway has had a judging panel.
9:22 am — Welcome from Hon. Nigel Warren, Consul General & Senior Trade Commissioner, Australian Trade Commission, Austrade.
9:22 am — Five-minute company pitches begin.
9:23 am — First company. Software Shortlist, Xavier Russo, CEO. Software Shortlist is a web service that helps small businesses make better software choices. They’re looking for distribution partners and raising investment ($1 M)
9:28 am — Judges questions — Xavier is smooth on his feet, handling questions about pricing model, competition and user reviews well.
9:32 am — Next company, myCaRMS. CEO and co-founder, Donald Halley. A cost-effective compliance and risk management software solution especially designed for credit unions. Streamlines the management of compliance and risk. Identifies the huge US credit market as potential client base.
9:36 am — Judges questions — How do credit unions manage this now, without myCaRMS? Pricing model? Compliance variations from country to country — “myCaRMS is designed to comply with each country’s regulations, but the product’s strength is in its core software.” Halley knows this business inside out.
9:41 am — Myownpad, Prasen Rathore, founder. 3D social gaming. Something different, Prasen shows us a video. You get a 3D “pad” — like an apartment or office, and you invite your friends or “guests” to visit and play games, upload files, photos, it’s your online desktop. Call your friends anytime, anywhere. Can play single-player games, multiple-player games. Getting desktop gaming to the Internet. “There’s something for everyone with myownpad.” Seeking $500,000 in seed funding to establish first two games.
9:46 am — Judges questions — how do you make money? “In the beginning it will be by micro payments.” Has the system been tested with gamers? “Other games have been tested on the system.” Prasen is one of the youngest presenters ever at ANZA. And the crowd is impressed with him.
9:50 am – iPowow! Gary Davis, CEO. A platform for attitudes and opinion. Engagement in online, real-time voting on videos. Sophisticated reporting structure. Politics, advocacy and media first three markets. Revenue model: Micropayments and licensing.
9:54 am — Judges questions — Give us an example of how this works. “A congresswoman makes a video and sends it to her constituents and puts it on her website. Viewers respond to the video in real-time and indicate their opinion.” Is it like a real-time video survey tool? “Yes — also audio and text though. A cloud-based wrapper than can go on any online media form.” Is there a patent? “Patent-pending in the US.” Could it be acquired by Google? “Absolutely.”
9:58 am – Spinergy. Luceille Outhred, Founding Director. Clean tech. Providing in situ power generation. John Deere, Solar and Wind power are the competitors. Latter two are more expensive to install and maintain. $100B market. In discussion with Itron and Toro. Customized solutions < 115 milliamps to meet standard (pico power). Business model — licensing, licensing and licensing — manufacturers, global brands to embed or augment and turnkey solutions.
10:05 am — Judges questions. Costs? “Less installation and less product costs”. Explain what it does. “Heat and energy rise and revolve — place a series of coils and the Spinergy device within these ’spins’ and it generates power. How do you store it? “With a small device”.
10:09 am — Tradeslot, Jesco d’Alquen, CEO — optimization and auction technology that creates transparent and efficient primary markets for scarce resources. Consumer auctions, why doesn’t it work in B2B? What if you could? Have solved massive port capacity problems in four major west coast ports in Australia. Impact has been a transparent market and reduced cycle time and improved revenue.
10:14 am — Judges questions. How many customers do you have? “Three large customers, including Australian federal government, looking for local partners in US.”
10:17 am — Earth Utility, Koovashni Reddy, Co-founder and managing director. We’re seeking partners and potential investors. Problems with solar — it’s great, but expensive. Overpriced and underserviced. Fully operational and functional in Australia, want to do the same for California. EU is an aggregator. Innovative service model, no debt in the model. Seeking $10 million.
10:25 am — Judges questions. High capital costs for individuals here in the US, how do you reduce that? “We buy in volume, so we can provide it at a lower costs.” Can’t someone else replicate what you’re doing? “Replication is indeed possible, but EU has a competitive advantage in that there is no up front costs.”
10:27 am — The next 3 companies are already doing business here in Silicon Valley.
10:27 am — Embedster. Denis Mars, CEO. How many of you have embedded a video on your blog or Facebook page? (Almost everyone raises their hand). Now, how many of you have ever made money from that? No hands up. How can the influencers (those of you who raised your hands) make some money? 40% of all YouTube videos have been consumed, but even more are embedded onto blogs and social networks. Influencers can have complete control over what kind of advertising they want to open the video on their site. Private beta now up, use code: ANZA. Looking for influencers to try out product and some talented engineers.
10:33 am — Judges questions. Bloggers may not want to use video just to show ads. “Also have text ads. Also works with Twitter, Facebook.” What’s revenue model? “Find key influencers to use the product – like Perez Hilton.” Looking for funding? “Raised seed round with first customer. Customers are coming to us!”
10:39 am — 5th Finger, Patrick Collins, President and co-founder. Been in US for 2 years. 3.3B mobile phones in the world. North America way ahead of Europe and Australia with mobile ads. Coca Cola’s mycoke rewards a major campaign, also Victoria’s Secret -10x return on SMS marketing, much better than email marketing.
10:46 am — Judges questions. How are you working with Twitter now? “Twitter feeds into our thinking. 5th Finger’s integrated into social media.”
10:49 am – Aruspex, Howard Koenig, CEO. “Token American” representing company that was founded in Melbourne, relocated to US last year. Leading strategic workforce planning, has moved from a software company to a software as a service company. Customers — mid-market to Fortune 500 and also some non-profits.
10:55 am — Judges questions. Competition? How does the current downsizing of workforces affect you? “Not really a problem — cutting workforce is the fastest way to react, but not always the smartest. Companies that cut too much now need to rebuild.”
10:59 am — Success! Great pitches to an SRO crowd. Viki thanks companies and invites everyone to the demos in the Plug and Play game room. Keep up with the rest of the Summit happenings on Twitter (#ANZAo9)
Overheard this said by judges: “Wow. A real interesting mix.” So who will win the Guy Manson Award for the hottest company at the show? The first 7 companies above are eligible — and the winner will be announced tomorrow night at the BBQ party at Plug and Play Tech Center. A few tickets at $55 each are still available. You can register here.
Posted by kazzadraskmedia 
Posted by kazzadraskmedia 
Posted by kazzadraskmedia 