This column appeared earlier today in the BostInno Beat newsletter.
The fourth annual unpitch happened in Boston yesterday and word on the street is it was such a raging success that the New England Venture Capital Association wants to do it again and again--like four times a year, maybe. Can Boston come up with 320 quality, underexposed startups a year to put in front of an a-list of investors? Yes, yep, I think we can.
Unpitch fills a pain point that's still dogging Boston after years of hand-wringing: Put good entrepreneurs in front of investors who might not otherwise get the chance to meet them. I heard from one prominent Boston seed investor who was delighted to come face-to-face with a founder who had been trying to connect but, "didn't rise above the inbox clutter."
The 35 investors in the room represented a who-to-follow of seed-stage investing in Boston, heavy on the tech but with cleantech (like Rob Day) and life sciences (like Paulina Hill andAvak Khavejian) also represented. "If you can't close a deal with a VC in this room, there's something wrong with you," one investor quipped to me afterward.
Out of 80+ startups pitching, not everyone is actually fundraising. And not everyone who's fundraising can close a deal. Among those that are fundraising and can, a few rise to the top and maybe even start to see a little jockeying among would-be check writers. (Always instructive to see what happens when a VC thinks he's going to miss out on a deal. You can actually see steam rising as the veneer of cool evaporates.)
Here's who investors were buzzing about at unpitch this year:
- Tradr, a "Tinder for vintage and handmade goods": Showing "traction," one investor said. "Really high adoption for its Craigslist-like service with Tinder-like interface," said another.
- BeautyLynk, "beauty service at your office, home or hotel": One investor liked how founder Rica Elysse "is just getting the business built and learning about her customers and learning how to expand to multiple cities rather than obsess about fundraising (though she may be back for that)." We gave you a First Look at BeautyLynk back in April.
- Jodone, "Salesforce meets Blizzard for robotics": I don't know what that means, but among the handful of robotics startups that had investors buzzing, Jodone got the most attention--probably because they could go pure-play in robotics software. "A Mechanical Turk for robots sorting recycling or pick & pack," said one investor. "Last mile for computer vision," said another.
- VisitDays, "reimagining the college admissions office": We hear this company that sets up campus visits is newly getting some real interest from seed investors, a few months after it put together $575K in a BOSS Syndicate round led byEvertrue founder Brent Grinna. "They refactored their sales approach and suddenly grew accounts ~30% in a week," one source told me.
- FitReserve, "the premier multi-studio fitness membership": This startup "will need a lot of money to complete with Classpass," one investor said, but the founder is talking a good game comparing Classpass to Groupon: Riding high, bound to take a fall off its stationary bike.
