Slush Brings Startup Pitch Event To Hong Kong
2/4/15 11:33 am
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Slush Brings Startup Pitch Event
To Hong Kong
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Joshua Steimle
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/)
Contributor
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I write about
startups, Hong
Kong, and digital
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Last week I had the privilege of being a judge at
Hong Kong’s newest startup pitch event, Slush
Hong Kong, where 18 startups had 3 minutes
apiece to present their companies to a panel of 5
judges. The grand prize–an all expenses trip for
the winning team to compete at Slush 2014
(http://www.slush.org/), November 18-19 in
Helsinki, Finland.
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Slush was founded in 2008 and is supported by
founders of tech notables MySQL, Rovio,
Supercell and Skype. It’s a two-day conference
where startups and investors can find each other.
The first Slush events attracted mere handfuls of
attendees, but this year the event is expected to
have over 10,000 attendees including 2,500
companies, 500 journalists, and hundreds of
investors representing over $200B in venture
capital funding. Startups that attend have
opportunities to meet with investors, demo
products, participate in pitching events, and
network at round tables. And according to
Slush’s Chief Strategy Officer Martin Talvari,
during the week of Slush there is a distinct spike
in the number of deals being struck in saunas.
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Page 1 of 5
Slush Brings Startup Pitch Event To Hong Kong
2/4/15 11:33 am
TeradataVoice: Data
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Jong Lee, an entrepreneur and investor based in Hong Kong, helped
bring Slush to the region. “For me, the importance of bringing a Slush
event to Hong Kong was to underscore the interconnectedness and
global nature of the startup world and Hong Kong,” Lee says. “Like
London, NYC and the Silicon Valley, the best come to work with the
best and to pursue their dreams, and it’s important for Hong Kong
Teradata
based startups to travel and engage with the best and brightest in the
Perspectives
Teradata
world who will be at the Slush event in Finland.”
(http://blogs.forbes.com/people/teradatacontributor/)
Tonight in Hong Kong the companies ranged from a “nightlife app” in
beta to Nixplay (https://www.nixplay.com/), which offers a WiFi
connected digital picture frame and has already shipped tens of
thousands of units. Some pitches were delivered by a single individual,
while other companies were represented by experienced teams. After
each 3-minute pitch, judges were allowed one question each, and then
2-3 questions were taken from audience members. For those who may
be preparing for a pitch event, there are certain questions the judges
asked over and over again, including:
How do you make money?
What are the barriers to entry?
What’s the marketing size?
Why is your team qualified to run this business?
Why did you start this business?
Teaching
Entrepreneurship To
Kids In Hong Kong
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/07/14/teachingentrepreneurship-tokids-in-hong-kong/)
Some of the companies were well-prepared and
answered the questions confidently and
convincingly, while others fumbled. The greatest
challenge for participants was sticking to the 3
Joshua Steimle
Contributor
minute time limit. In some cases, the presenter
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/)
wasn’t capable of even communicating the basic idea of their business
within 3 minutes, although many of the companies were polished in
their presentations. When the voting was done, the top three winners
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/10/15/slush-brings-startup-pitch-event-to-hong-kong/
Page 2 of 5
Slush Brings Startup Pitch Event To Hong Kong
2/4/15 11:33 am
were:
Third place, Think Group (http://www.thinki.ng/). Like
CrazyEgg (http://www.crazyegg.com/) or other solutions that produce
Will China's Policies
heat maps to track visitor behavior on websites and allow website
Doom
Entrepreneurship In
owners to optimize, Think Group does the same in the offline world by
Hong Kong?
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/09/29/willplacing cameras in retail stores and generating analytics data based on
chinas-policiesdoomvisually observable shopper behavior, combined with permissionentrepreneurship-inbased data obtained from shoppers via WiFi and Bluetooth.
hong-kong/)
Joshua Steimle
Contributor
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/)
Second place, uHoo (http://www.uhooinc.com/). Following in
the steps of Internet connected smart devices like Nest
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/06/24/google-nestsmart-home-internet-of-things/), uHoo offers a device, about the size
of a can of soda, which provides information about the air quality in
your home. It records data about carbon dioxide levels, particulate
matter, volatile organic compounds (or airborne chemicals),
temperature and relative humidity, and allows you to access this
information through a smartphone app.
First place, BitMEX (http://bitmex.com/), or the Bitcoin
Mercantile Exchange. BitMEX aims to be a platform for investors to
trade Bitcoin derivatives. BitMEX offers centrally cleared futures and
options contracts on Bitcoin vs. fiat and other crypto currencies. By
attracting additional investors to markets related to cryptocurrencies
like Bitcoin, BitMEX will reduce volatility in the value of these
currencies, increasing their potential for everyday use.
Hong Kong Startup
Contest Attracts 550
Entries
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/08/05/hongkong-startupcontest-attracts-550entries/)
BitMEX is putting the finishing touches on their
exchange, perfecting its systems so that BitMEX
will have ample liquidity on the first day of
Joshua Steimle
Contributor
trading, which will happen within a few weeks.
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/)
Just prior to attending Slush 2014 in Helsinki,
BitMEX will be off to Web Summit
(http://websummit.net/) in Dublin where they
will exhibit their platform at the conference.
“Winning means that the startup community
recognizes the contribution that BitMEX will
bring to the Bitcoin ecosystem,” said Arthur
Hayes, Co-Founder and CEO of BitMEX. “We are delighted to have the
opportunity to attend the Slush event in Helsinki. The publicity and
exposure from pitching to experienced VCs is invaluable.”
What You Don't
Know About Doing
Business In Hong
Kong
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Page 3 of 5
Slush Brings Startup Pitch Event To Hong Kong
2/4/15 11:33 am
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/07/25/whatyou-dont-knowabout-doingbusiness-in-hongkong/)
Joshua Steimle
Contributor
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/)
There was also a community choice award, which was won by
TechPacker (http://www.techpacker.com/), an app that allows
clothing designers to quickly and easily create a “tech pack” and
submit it to a manufacturer. The term tech pack is common in the
manufacturing industry and is used to describe a document product
designers use to tell a manufacturer all the parts necessary to create a
product.
It might be of interest to future pitch event participants to know that
there was quite a bit of variability in the voting amongst the judges.
BitMEX and uHoo could have easily traded places with the change of a
vote or two.
Slush is just one of many pitch events now being held regularly in
Hong Kong. CoCoon, a cowork space in Hong Kong, has a monthly
pitch event which has directly led to millions raised for Hong Kong
startups (http://www.startupshk.com/cocoon-pitch-semi-finals-xuniversity-of-waterloo/). Hong Kong angel investor Simon Squibb
has embraced frequent pitch days through his firm NEST
(http://nest.vc/). The largest pitch event in Hong Kong, the
StartMeUp Venture Programme
(http://www.startmeup.hk/en/awards-programme/ventureprogramme1/), is hosted by the Hong Kong government and will
take place this November.
Joshua Steimle is the CEO of MWI (http://mwi.hk/?
utm_source=forbes), a digital marketing agency with offices in the
U.S. and Hong Kong.
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