Founders Network Hosts Inaugural fnDemo Startup Competition
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) May 20, 2013
Founders Network (http://www.foundersnetwork.com), a peer mentorship organization that includes more than 350 tech startup “founders helping founders,” today announced the inaugural fnDemo, a virtual tech startup pitch competition featuring more than 30 of the network’s member startups.
Starting today, the participating Founders Network members from Silicon Valley, LA, New York and around the world will virtually pitch their startups to leading investors, media and fans who can vote for their favorites. Two categories of winners will be announced when voting concludes this Friday, May 24 at 12pm PDT: 1) the fnDemo Champ who generates the most social shares via the Fandrop platform and 2) the Judges’ Pick who earns the most votes from a panel of 10 judges representing leading angel and venture capital investors.
“fnDemo showcases not only the Founders Network members that make up our committed network of tech startup founders, but also the collective power of our peer mentorship community,” said Kevin Holmes, Founder & CEO of Founders Network. “We are excited to see such an impressive set of members participating in the inaugural contest and to have the support of such an esteemed panel of judges from the venture capital and angel investor community.”
Powered by viral marketing platform Fandrop, fnDemo offers Founders Network members the opportunity to gain recognition and attention for their innovative startups across industries ranging from education and entertainment to real estate and retail.
“We are thrilled to be working with Founders Network on an event that will help game-changing new companies get the awareness and accolades they deserve,” said Ken Zi Wang, Co-Founder & CEO of Fandrop and a member of Founders Network. “Without Founders Network, and the advice and support of its accomplished members, Fandrop would not be where it is today. We are honored to be able to give back to the community by serving as the technology partner for the inaugural fnDemo.”
Founded in 2011, Founders Network helps members efficiently solve startup problems through a private member site while building long-term, trusted relationships through in-person meetings in San Francisco / Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and New York City. All members are vetted through an approval process that only admits experienced founders who expressly commit to the success of the group. For more information, please visit http://www.foundersnetwork.com.
Participating investors:
Howard Hartenbaum, August Capital; Stephanie Palmeri, SoftTech VC; Ben Parr, DominateFund; Laurel Touby; Gil Penchina; Marlon Nichols, Intel Capital; Ben Narasin, Triple Point Capital; Arif Janmohamed, Lightspeed Ventures and Rishi Taparia, Matrix Partners.
Participating startups:
AbbeyPost, AHHHA, aMAP.to, BlogMutt, built.io, Cloudability, Dealingers, Dishcrawl, EEME, Etceter, Fiverun, Fleksy, Good.Co, GradFly, Graphdat, HungryGlobetrotter, Indiloop, Karma Store, Merxz, MyFit3D, Pogoseat, Relevance, RentHackr, RivalMe Trivia, Samepage.io, Sher.ly, SportsLab, Spreeify, Turnyp, Venturocket, Vuact.
Sponsors and Partners:
First Republic Bank, Guderson Dettmer, SoftLayer, BWK New York Public Relations, Betts Recruiting, Fandrop, VerbFactory.
About fnDemo
Hosted by Founders Network, a peer mentorship organization of more than 350 tech startup “founders helping founders,” fnDemo is a virtual tech startup pitch competition for leading investors, media and prospective customers and employees. Powered by viral marketing platform Fandrop, fnDemo enables Founders Network members to present their startups and lets fans and judges — representing angel and venture capital investors — vote for their favorite companies. For more information, please visit fnDemo.