After more than three months of hard work — from launching beta apps and growing a client base, to switching gears and learning through trial and error — 12 teams presented their work during DreamIt Ventures’ Philly Demo Day yesterday.
The 12 teams — including two with Delaware roots — took turns presenting to hundreds of technologists, investors and venture capitalists.
Here’s how the home team fared:
1. Nfoshare
Nikhil Paul, a University of Delaware graduate, kicked off the presentations with an update from his company, Nfoshare, which specializes in social and emotional data.
@nfoshare opens with an Opra Moment, everyone in the crowd gets product for free today. #dreamitphilly
— stevenwelch (@welchsteven) December 3, 2014
Originally created to gauge the day-to-day emotions of professors and students on college campus, the platform and app (coming soon) are targeted at individuals in the fields of IT, hospitality and retail, Paul said during his presentation. The constant responses from the platform and app can help individuals in the workplace better understand each other.
Nfoshare launched its beta in October and eight companies have already used the platform. Paul said about 30 percent of the workforce would be likely to respond to a clunky survey asking questions about their job.
“We we’re able to hit the 64 percent mark in six weeks. That’s what we call a game changer,” Paul said. “If a company wants to be successful, if a company wants to be great, you have to engage with employees. We need to start killing the surveys. Let’s make it fun, let’s make it engaging, dare I say, let’s make it inspiring.”
"You get an @nfoshare! You get an @nfoshare!" #killsurveys #DreamItPhilly pic.twitter.com/Sq8LuAXuwc
— Ted Mann (@turkeymonkey) December 3, 2014
Nfoshare, which is currently based in New York City, plans to raise $500,000 in its next round of funding. Paul said his organization plans to stay in New York for now, but would consider other locations if investors were willing to provide funding.
2. Cnverg
Richard Prieto led the discussion on Cnverg (formerly known as MUNI-Tech), which creates hardware and software to connect people all over the world, visually, its founders say. After the presentation, Prieto and partner John Kirk demonstrated a large touchscreen, which allowed users the chance to move digital sticky notes on a business plan and add content to the document.
Richard from @Cnverg explaining how bringing people to the collab boards is costing co's billions #DreamItPhilly pic.twitter.com/KgeANiAAAm
— Dreamit Ventures (@dreamit) December 3, 2014
During the presentation, Prieto said he and Kirk reached out to 100 large organizations, especially in the engineering and construction fields, to see if they’d be interested in the hardware and technology. The answer was yes: 46 told the pair that Cnverg was the exact solution their company was looking for; 25 companies said they were interested in working together; a few, Prieto reported, even turned into paying customers.
“Our goal is to become the leading collaborative management platform in the world,” Prieto said. “We want companies to connect people and their processes.”
.@cnverg is clean, visual, RT & works on mobile. No collab solution is better for a distributed workforce #DreamItPhilly @DreamitVentures
— Karen Griffith Gryga (@karengg) December 3, 2014
Cnverg is planning to raise $1.5 million in its next round of funding. Kirk said, for now, he and Prieto are continuing to split their time working in Philadelphia and at The Loft in Wilmington.
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!