Four Minutes to Funding
Where can you get everything from cybersecurity to men's fashion (besides any Kiefer Sutherland scene on 24)? We stopped by MAVA's TechBUZZ at AOL's Sterling, Va., campus this week, where tech startups of all kinds pitch their businesses.
ID.me cofounder Blake Hall says the military was good prep for being an entrepreneur. Missions in Iraq didn't always follow plan and he had to lead teams through pivots and new challenges. His company went from offering daily deals to military families to authenticating identities online for retailers offering certain groups of people, like veterans, discounts. Blake, who was the first keynoter at TechBUZZ, says early stage companies go through a series of experiments before finding the right formula.
Hugh & Crye founder Pranav Vora was one of 20 presenting companies. His DC-based online men’s apparel company helps male shoppers find the perfect fit for clothes. Its 12 size categories don’t come in small, medium, or large, but more like “short, athletic.” (If they went by online dating profiles, everyone's shirt size would be "tall, active, great cook.") The company is focused on shirts and accessories for now but wants to expand. It closed 2013 with $1.8M net revenues and has 15,000 customers. Pranav says he’d like to raise $2M to help fuel growth, particularly by broadening its distribution channel.
STAQ cofounder James Curran started the SaaS ad tech aggregator platform in February and says the demand has been huge. The company’s software allows marketers and publishers to use one platform to connect to various ad tech systems. They normally would use spreadsheets to gather ad data, log into various platforms, paste everything together, and then go back into the systems to start and stop ad campaigns. STAQ automates all the log-ins and provides a dashboard for collaborating with a team. James says the market is worth about $137B.
The first panel of judges/investors voting on the strongest presentations included In-Q-Tel partner Brinda Jadeja, SWaN & Legend managing director and chief investment officer Todd Klein, TEDCO managing director Randy Domolky, and Genacast Ventures managing partner Gil Beyda. They say it’s a great time to be investors because so many companies seeking funds have revenue, but there are also some presentation pet peeves: thinking of a business pitch to investors as a sales presentation and taking too long to explain what the company does.
