Last week Tallinn was hot with startup and entrepreneur activity. Latvian travel search engine startup MoVoLo won the Elevator Pitch Competition organized by ArcticStartup and Tehnopol Estonia as part of the Third Annual Tallinn Conference by The International Technology Law Association and Enterprise Estonia. Also ArcticEvening Tallinn, among other startup events the same week, gathered a great crowd of entrepreneurs and likeminded people together.
The ITech Law conference pulled in over 200 registrants, and the finalists selected for the Pitch Competition based on the applications were:
- BrightArch – Norway (Second prize)
- The problem we’re solving is that companies going through transformational reorganizations or post-merger integrations have not had any dedicated tools to make these large projects both efficient and sensitive to employee preferences. With the launch of OrganizationWeaver, large enterprises will have the dedicated tools and processes to build powerful organizations based on merit and trust. With an earlier version of the tool, we helped Statoil (the 36th largest company in the world) staff most of their employees when they merged with a large competitor.
- GigsWiz.com – Finland
- GigsWiz is developing next generation statistics and ticketing service for the music industry. GigsWiz will collect information about the demand for concerts together with artists, agents and promoters. The statistics and reports on what and where fans want to hear, makes arranging gigs and tours easier and reduces the risk. Compared to other analytics services GigsWiz is focused on estimating future consumer behavior rather than reporting the past.
Movolo – Latvia (Winner)
- MoVoLo is a new, innovative travel search engine for true door to door searches, bookings and ticketing. If you want to travel from Tartu to Taormina, and in general from/to minor destinations, there is no available Travel Search engine in the world that would allow you to find a solution that would include flights and transportation from/to airports via cars, trains, buses etc. MoVoLo has created a search engine that allows you to find the cheapest and the fastest route and to issue all necessary tickets.
- Sportlyzer – Estonia
- Sportlyzer is a web application with the capabilities of a professional fitness coach. Sportlyzer’s competitors turn data into statistics, Sportlyzer turns data into advice. Unique algorithms give Sportlyzer ability to analyze and advise trainings and provide motivational support for fitness-level exercizers. Whole system is combined with a social network for uniting friends at trainings. Sportlyzer’s motivation rising algorithms are derived from sports psychology and persuasive technology methods, and are the first attempt to implement such a combination in a web application. Fully evidence-based algorithms are constructed with attendance of scientists from two Estonian universities.
- Veloelektron – Estonia (Third prize)
- We are like Apple in 1976. The electric revolution in a transport sector is coming and we are in the frontline of it. Urban electric two wheelers are first to reach mass scale. We have solved a number of compact class e-bike problems like mass-to-range problem, size and optimization of power electronics and controllers, production readiness. Since the cost of new technology is high, we believe that most competitive sales model is similar to iPhone where equipment is rented/leased not sold.
Each of the firms had 7 minutes to pitch themselves, after which the jury, mainly consisting of VCs and investors, asked some detailed tough questions. It seemed that there were elements in each of the finalists’ pitches that the judges thought could have been described much better. (Keeping in mind of course that the jury was more than less looking through the investor glasses.) Thus the session was essentially a great learning experience to everyone participating as well. In general, as they say, there are three ways to improve your pitch – rehearse, rehearse, rehearse… Then get some feedback, re-evaluate and change accordingly, and rehearse again.
Congrats to the winners!
