Bambi Francisco

Testing out Fliqz

I'll be interviewing Benjamin Wayne from Fliqz for Vator.tv, so I thought I'd test out his widget.

Vator Reports: Wine 2.0

Using Web 2.0 communication tools, the emerging ‘Wine 2.0’ industry is rapidly changing the way people learn about wine and the way it is produced, marketed and sold. In this episode, Bambi and Tony discuss the Wine 2.0 phenomenon and highlight some of the submissions to Vator.tv’s ongoing Wine 2.0 contest co-sponsored by Redpoint Ventures. Featured in this episode are the founders and CEOs of Crushpad, Openbottles (for Openbottles founder Sagi Solomon’s 1:1 interview with Bambi, click here), WineLog and Vinquire. The Wine 2.0 contest is running through

October 1, 2007

Please help spread the word about the contest to innovative companies you know in this space. For more info about the contest and to view current submissions click here.

Plug and Play's attendees pitch on Vator

On Thursday, I went to the Plug and Play EXPO and gave my own 2-minute elevator pitch. I was among three dozen other entrepreneurs trying to capture the attention of a packed room, filled with investors, service providers and fellow startup executives. It was a fun experience for me, considering I'm at the helm of a site that's essentially a repository of business pitches. If I couldn't get my story down in two minutes, then how could I possibly expect others to do so? Well, I did get my pitch down. And, throughout the day many entrepreneurs were comfortable enough to do their own 2 to 3 minute pitch for Vator.tv.

For self-serving reasons, one of my favorite pitches from the event came from QlipBoard. This company allows you to create a slideshow, integrating video, audio and screenshots. When Swamy Viswanathan, a co-founder and VP of products, told me about his service, I said, "Well, if QlipBoard does that, then show me how you can easily create a pitch for Vator.tv." Up for the challenge, Swamy created his slideshow in less than five minutes right in front of me. His slideshow is the highlighted video in this post.

 

The Vator.tv team - including Meghan Evans, Meliza Solan and Cyril Brignone - were at the event. We met a lot of great entrepreneurs. Here are a few of them: Syed Azhar from Plug and PlayTechCenter 
gave a pitch for IT and co-location services. Shobeir Shobeiri pitched Plug and Play's services, such as office space in SunnyVale. TWIKI.NET's Rod Beckstrom, who also gave his two-minute presentation at the Plug and Play event, gave Vator his pitch about his enterprise wiki technology.  Anand Jagannahan pitches Kriyari, a Web 2.0 online mall. Saied Nsbat pitches his keyboard for mobile devices. His company is called Exideas.

 

Sarah Burns gave her pitch for RELIEF International.  Sushi Jha gave his pitch for Outerjoin, a game-changing marketing company. Mahesh Lalwani gave his pitch about Ccube. His Ccube profile on Vator showcases the Ccube widget. Dominique Piotet pitched Atelier, a consulting company.

Many people have asked me about what makes a great ele-Vator pitch. I think this is a question many people probably ask themselves. So, I decided that it's probably best to post this in our newsroom for those interested in knowing how to make the most compelling pitch.

Here are some really interesting pitches that showcase how you can leverage your pitch profile:

Shopit has a profile that includes a widget of a personal Shopit store. They're also very comprehensive.

See Shopit's Vator profile

DigitTVSoft has a profile with embedded videos and about a dozen documents that help give the audience a great view of the company.
See DigiTVSoft's Vator profile

Mobivideo has an amazingly entertaining video pitch that we highlighted this in our newsroom.

See Mobivideo's Vator profile

You can be as creative as you want. We don't want you to feel confined to what we want you to do. But what we typically tell people is:

• Be original
• Demonstrate your value proposition
• Make it fun and entertaining
• Explain the market size/opportunity
• Avoid interview style presentations (boring!)
• Tell us what keeps you up at night
• Why are you better than your rivals? (And don't say you don't have any!)
• What was the original need that sparked the idea for your start-up?
• How does your role as a start-up entrepreneur impact your life?
• What have you sacrificed for your start-up?
• What if it fails?

 

Ross Levinsohn on Web trends, Velocity

Two big Web luminaries - Ross Levinsohn, who was Fox Interactive Media President at the time News Corp bought MySpace, and Jonathan Miller, who was AOL CEO when the Internet company bought Advertising.com -- have finally revealed their new venture - Velocity Investmet Group. As Ross tells me in this interview, he and John knew each other for the last 15 years. They realized that they "agree on most things" about the Internet and, in fact, competed for acquisitions while they were both at their respective companies. As luck would have it, they both left their companies within two days of one another and thus began brainstorming for the last five months. Both worked on various ideas, including the idea to raise funds for their own venture. In the end, being advisers to deep-pocketed General Atlantic was the way to go. (Go to Vator.tv for more of the story.)