Drystorm, an Italian startup helping customers create Rails apps faster, is the big winner of betapitch | Vienna at sektor5 and will compete for the global betapitch award in two weeks.
Despite the tempting Thursday afternoon sunshine, 70 people gathered at the coworking space to hear the pitches of nine startups selected from 25 candidates.
The teams
Louis Sayers from Drystorm. Photo credit: Teresa Hammerl, www.colazionearoma.com Winners Drystorm were the first to pitch their service, followed by ChatGrape, a company that injects order and efficiency in team chats. Next up were SecureBeam, advertised as the smart way to connect all cloud storages in one safe place and Keyper an app that aims to improve the process of buying concert tickets for friends.
Inventures.eu’s last week’s Startup Pick – Pikkpack also presented, followed by two hardware companies – cloudfleet – a startup that takes back control of big data with a small box that hosts a cloud at home and MagicShifter – an open source hardware gadget for lighting and gaming.
SmartMenu and keyless wrapped up the pitches before the much awaited award ceremony and the after-party with hot dogs. True to its name, SmartMenu offers to keep restaurant customers happy with a virtual menu featuring direct ordering. Keyless promises a future where “every computer, projector, television, and tablet you walk up to will recognise you,” without having to remember a string of passwords.
The jury
A jury of six well-known names in the startup ecosystem was tasked with asking the tough questions. Pásztor Aurél from Day One Capital, Jeff Lynn from Seedrs, Zoltan Radnai from Prezi, Imre Hild from iCatapult, Bernhard Thalhammer from Styria Digital and Charlotte Bilzer from Axel Springer Plug n Play accelerator selected three winners and even gave some additional awards.
The prizes
Full house at Sektor5; Photo credit: Teresa Hammerl, www.colazionearoma.com Naturally, Drystorm took home the biggest basket, winning the prestigious rocket trophy, 1.000 dollars credit to spend on elance-odesk.com, an ExplainerRocket video worth 4.000 euros, a wild card to Axel Springer’s accelerator days in September, a Prezi 10 seat group license and an invite to Prezi’s Budapest office.
They weren’t the only winners of the night, however, as MagicShifter’s eye-catching hardware won second place, a workshop on crowdfunding led by Seedrs CEO Jeff Lynn and wild card tickets to Pirate Summit. Keyless’ Adam Martin, originally from Australia, will make Vienna his new home, as he scored a free six-month package from sektor5. Impressed by their kicktarter success, Styria Digital decided to support the Hungarian ladies from PikkPack with an online media package on relevant sites in their portfolio, worth 6.000 euros.
While Drystorm prepare for what is perhaps one of their biggest prizes – the chance to pitch at the betapitch | global event, on 30 August, where they will face off five other finalists Europe, there will be a chance to meet them very soon as they claim yet another prize – an interview with Inventures.eu.
