On August 11th, 500 Startups held its MOAR! Demo Day in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum in the heart of the Valley. This invite-only, all-day event featured 500 active and accredited investors who were given the chance to see and hear about 500 Startups’ accelerator startups just before they graduate.
The Demo Day also included meeting the founders and networking with other investors, the media, and those within the local business community as well as post-seed company demos considered to be Series A and beyond.
Here are some of the top companies from the Demo Day:
- Totspot: Directed at parents, this mobile marketplace connects parents who are looking to buy or sell children’s clothing and accessories. The mobile platform handles all the transactions and shipping to make the process as easy as possible. In the current sharing economy, this is a business that understands the needs and desires of today’s consumers.
- Kollecto: Since many of us may enjoy champagne tastes on a beer budget, including our love of art, Kollecto gives everyone the ability to own and invest in art. After creating a taste profile, which can be changed as tastes evolve, a user can then receive all types of finds from Kollecto that suits what they are looking for and matches their budget. Art collection truly becomes available for everyone rather than serving as a pastime of the rich.
- Cellbreaker.com: This innovative idea is a free service for consumers who want to monitor changes to their cell contracts, including changing carriers without paying early termination fees or your phone number. Helping you break free from slave-like cell phone contracts is going to change the playing field in the cell phone industry, which often feels like it borders on a monopoly.
- Grom: Started in 2012 in reaction to the emergence of the 3D printing market and with an eye to capturing the ever-growing demand for cell phone products, this company has customized 3D printed mobile phone cases as well as numerous other products in the pipeline that are destined to disrupt the marketplace.
- Cocontest: Rather than get one or two ideas from an interior designer, Cocontest pits designers against each other to deliver up to 10 ideas based on a submitted overview of color and style preferences. This designer/architect contest saves consumers and businesses time and money while also delivering a higher level of creativity and excitement to the process of designing or redesigning a space.
- Pixc: Recognizing that consumers have become visual consumers that are influenced by stunning professional images of products to the point of purchase, Pixc found a niche that they are now exploiting. The company helps to create retail-ready photographs retailers can use as part of their online presence to showcase, amaze, and influence their audience to buy.
- Crowdplat: As an enterprise outsourcing platform for custom apps and tech projects, Crowdplat connects customers who are looking for project teams to execute technology projects with freelance teams from around the world. Verified freelance project managers compete with each other for enterprise project work and then the winning project manager has access to freelancers and tools to deliver the final project.
- Givesurance: This socially conscious startup provides a way for people to get a five percent rebate from insurance payments that can then be given directly to charities of choice without any hidden fees or catches. This feel-good, do-right company takes care of all the paperwork and donations and then sends credit information directly to the donor.
- Coachmarket: To help everyone from newbies to seasoned professionals, the team at Coachmarket works with individuals to determine what they would like to achieve in their career and then determine an advisor that can help provide the coaching necessary to help achieve those goals. Working with everyone from C level executives to those just getting started, the Coachmarket group matches up the right advisor in terms of experience, industry, and contacts and then helps to create a personal plan to meet those needs.
- Geekatoo: This innovative startup combines the convenience of Uber with the brains of a Geek Squad by bringing tech geeks who can provide technical support straight to your office or house. No one really wants to unplug all those wires and components to take their equipment into a repair shop for troubleshooting, but they will since their life (and livelihood) often depend on it. However, having someone come to your house or office to fix your computer or networks delivers value to the exponential degree.
- Edools: This innovative company is helping others build the online platforms they need to educate and teach students across different grade levels and curriculums. With so many more students – from grade school through university and career training – willing to learn through online instructions and classrooms, Edools recognizes a large trend and is offering a solution to address that change.
- Kono: This startup has come up with an artificial intelligence (AI) mobile application that makes scheduling events so much easier, including setting up details like location, food preference, and availability as your virtual personal assistant.
- Publishizer: Authors can get in front of more literary agents and get the interest they need to get published with Publishizer’s marketplace that includes the ability to create a proposal, launch a campaign, and event get pre-orders. Authors can keep full control over their book while also not having to worry about any upfront costs. This business model could turn the page on how books are published, providing the author with more control than ever before.
These amazing ideas are just a sampling of what was on display during Demo Day. They all appear to be well on their way to becoming sustainable business models and full-fledged companies thanks to the guidance, experience, and knowledge of the talented team behind 500 Startups. I look forward to watching these startups grow up into successful companies.