Ari Grazi of Indiwalls wins first place in pitching contest
The three winners of Ultra Light Startup’s December Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown had three things in common: innovative technologies, understandable pitches and appealing energy. First place winner Ari Grazi won largely because his enthusiasm spread and helped him garner the most tweets. Also his pitch describing his startup was clear and easy to understand — Indiewalls turns empty wall space into galleries through a system of registering, uploading, choosing and shipping on the Internet.
“We’re somewhat of an art gallery that exists both online in the virtual space and in real life, in public, on the actual walls. People who are looking for art under $5,000 aren’t going to Chelsea Gallery openings all the time,” said Grazi. “We support local artists — we can represent them for a much lower price point because we don’t have to pay rent, and we take a lower commission. We just use the wall space of others, and in return those spaces get free art.”
The second place winner was Robert Petti of Resoomay. Event host Graham Lawler said that it was a winner because it was comprehensible, and people were familiar with it. “A lot of people are looking for jobs these days, and they run into the problem of how they can stand out from other applicants. They know that the hiring manager is ending up with an entire mailbox of applications and resumes, and Petti solved this issue by using video.”
Petti concurred, “I didn’t have to spend any time talking about what the product was and what it did, rather we just jumped into the competitive landscape, differentiation and adoption. People knew what video interviewing was and how it played into the hiring process. It was just a matter of how our company is doing it differently and better than its competitors.” At the end of his pitch, one of the VC panelists suggested that it could even stand out more if it was less expensive saying that it should be free or at a lower price.
Third place winner Richard Zelson said that his playlist sharing iPhone app MyStream won because of its tag line, “Share your music, not your headphones” resonated with people. “You would see two kids on a bus sharing their headphones with one button each, he explained. “But now with our app one person can play it, but both can hear it wirelessly in their own heads. Many people have tweeted our slogan — I guess it’s memorable.”
He originally got the idea while traveling abroad with friends, one of who had a Walkman. “We would travel on trains and put music on the speaker, but when we all didn’t get in the same car, we couldn’t all get the great music. Eventually the iPhone came out, and we made a functional platform where you can make a playlist of any songs in an iPhone app, and anyone within Bluetooth or Wi-Fi range can see me, click on me, and hear what I’m playing as I’m playing it but in their own headphones.”
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