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About 200 techologists showed up at Galvanize last night to attend the New Tech Denver event. The festivities started out with an open bar -- always a great way to draw a crowd (as you see above).
Once the event began, it was a pretty full house. We were treated to presentations by startups at several stages of their life cycle
- Sphero / Orbotix -- a few years old & well funded
- Symbi
- iTriage Health -- mature & acquired by Aetna
- Brandfolder -- only about 90 days since launch
- Altruist
Andrei Taraschuk MCed, and all of the presenters had great, compelling presentations. Of course, there were a few presentations/companies that really stood out:
[ibimage==23897==Medium==none==self==ibimage_align-left]Chuck Lepley, showed us Sphero 2.0.
A robotic ball that you can control with your smartphone is an instant win in a room full of geeks.
Particularly so when there are SDKs available for both iOS and Android, so you can create your own apps for it... In fact, Chuck told us that roughly half of the apps currently available for Sphero have been produced by 3rd party developers. One even makes your Sphero spin at different speeds, humming the theme from Star Wars!
His pet Sphero for the evening (pictured) was a special edition version, created specifically for Apple's retail stores.
If we didn't come to the event already wanting a Sphero, we certainly left wanting one.
[ibimage==23903==Medium==none==self==ibimage_align-left]Techstars grad, Brandfolder, was represented by Brian Parks. They're a fairly early-stage startup, having just launched about 90 days ago. (And have had an impressive 2,100 brand folders created by users since that time.)
According to them, "Our job is to be the best brand organization and delivery platform on the planet."
But what do they do? They provide a customized & customizable way for marketers & brand owners to archive/share the most current information about their brand. It's sort of like a press kit on steroids. Sphero is one of their clients, which Brian showed us last night. You can see how Sphero (an early client) is using Brandfolder here.
[ibimage==23907==Medium==none==self==ibimage_align-left]Another company, which was probably the most "advanced" in terms of company lifecycle to present that night, was iTriage. They "chose" to be acquired by Aetna in 2011, and have continued their triple-digit growth since that time.
Their app has been downloaded by more than 10 million users.
Samantha Schreiner's presentation began with a moving customer testimonial video -- a user who was alerted to a life-threatening condition. He made it to the hospital just before he clinically died & the staff there was able to revive him.
It's inspiring to see a local startup that has created a technology that actually saves people's lives... A lot of truly great things are being done here.
Also, I have to say that Samantha is a great presenter -- healthcare isn't something one normally associates with vibrant presentations.
All of the companies which presented were great! It was a very inspiring night & I'm looking forward to the next New Tech event (keep en eye on the Built in Colorado events calendar).