And just like that, it’s day two of TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing and Fundraising! Yesterday not only flew by in a blur — it was also certifiably off the hook. We hope you came away with new information, actionable advice that you can implement in your business right away and that you connected with your peers and other startup folks for support and opportunities along the way.
Pssst: Buy a ticket and tune in to today’s main event (see below).
We also hope you got a good night’s sleep because today is all about the pitch-off! Ten early-stage founders — hand-picked by the TechCrunch crew — will throw down in classic pitch-battle fashion in front of these highly experienced and definitely discerning VC judges: Ben Sun of Primary Venture Partners, Leah Solivan of Fuel Capital and Index Ventures’ Shardul Shah.
Each startup team has only five minutes to pitch their company, business model and creative ideas — followed by a Q&A from our esteemed judges. When the pitch dust settles, one winner will get a feature article on TechCrunch.com, a one-year free subscription to Extra Crunch and a complimentary Founder Pass to TechCrunch Disrupt this fall.
Whether you’re at Disrupt, Early Stage or a TC Session event, if you have a chance to see other founders pitch or watch VCs conduct a pitch deck teardown — take it. It’ll help you refine your own pitch.
I walked away with a bunch of notes to reorganize my pitch deck, and I’ve watched the pitch deck teardown videos multiple times, including side by side with my pitch deck. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding because now I have a clear path. Disrupt was like an authoritative instruction manual for how to finish my pitch deck. — Michael McCarthy, CEO, Repositax.
Get comfortable wherever you are, get ready to take copious notes and get ready to watch these 10 early-stage startups bring the heat on day two of TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing and Fundraising.
Session 1: 9:00 a.m. – 9:50 a.m. PDT
Mi Terro (City of Industry, CA, USA) — The world’s first advanced material company that partners with food companies and farmers to create home-compostable, single-use plastic-alternative packaging materials made from plant-based agricultural waste – this is a first-of-its-kind approach.
Press Sports App (Atlanta, GA, USA) — A lifelong sports social network for athletes from all levels and sports. Their deeply engaged community is creating a system of record starting at the amateur level that has never been built before.
Snowball Wealth (San Francisco, CA, USA) — Provides personalized guidance to pay off debt and build wealth for the 30 million+ women in America with student debt. Snowball provides users with a free student loan plan, which helps users save an average of $6,000. They’re expanding to include a financial roadmap that’s community-driven and personalized so women can build wealth even as they pay down their debt.
My Expat Taxes (Vienna, Austria) — MyExpatTaxes is the leading U.S. expat tax software that guides users through the tax filing process faster and more affordably than any other competitor in the industry. It automates international tax treaties and expat tax benefits, helping U.S. expats stay compliant and claim thousands of dollars in refunds.
Speeko (Chicago, Illinois, USA) — AI-powered feedback on your voice in areas like pace, fillers, inclusivity, conciseness and enunciation. Based on your speaking style, you’re matched with interactive exercises, courses, and vocal warm-ups. It’s like a gym membership for your voice, where you build muscle memory for speaking clearly and confidently.
Session 2: 10:10 a.m. – 11:05 a.m. PDT
Universal Prequal (Marlboro, NJ, USA) — Helps construction companies effectively manage risk by enabling them to find and vet qualified project teams capable of doing the work. Instead of the paper-intensive, time-consuming, expensive approach that exists throughout the industry today, our solution is online, easy-to-use and cost-effective. Customers will know us as the national resource for managing risk based on comprehensive, reliable construction information.
T2D2.ai (New York City, NY, USA) — Provides continuous AI and computer-vision-driven monitoring of buildings, bridges and other infrastructural assets. The T2D2 portal and dashboard gives asset owners and managers a detailed picture of all visible damage conditions – rank ordered by severity and geotagged for location information, so they can focus preventative maintenance efforts and avoid higher downstream repair costs as well as potential safety issues.
Boomerang (Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil) — A marketplace for consumer goods rental. We connect retailers, brands and rental stores with customers that just want to use a product instead of owning it. For suppliers, Boomerang is a plug-and-play rental platform offering logistics, insurance, and online payments solutions.
Stash Global (Wilmington, DE, USA) — Turned the most damaging cyberattack of all, ransomware, into just another business problem that can be solved with the click of a button — without paying a cent (or cyber coin) of ransom. The No Ransom Ransomware Solution does it all: restores files; prevents access of frozen file content by attackers; eliminates ransom extortion.
Vyrill (San Francisco, CA, USA) — With the most powerful AI-driven, in-video search, Vyrill is a fan video discovery, insights and content marketing platform enabling brand marketers to supercharge brand awareness and revenue with fan-led content such as video reviews, unboxing, how-to videos and more. Vyrill is a Google for fan video and creators, capturing who, what, where and when — inside millions of videos.”
