The 20 Best OTM Demos of 2015
Shoflo, a real-time cue management platform for the event production industry, won the audience and judges’ awards at the first VenturePitch of 2014.
The evening started with an interview of Zentila founder Mike Mason by VenturePitch Orlando founder Dennis Pape and Rollins College Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance Bill Grimm. The bulk of the evening consisted of 4 pitches. Shoflo was voted as the winner of both available awards for best pitch.
Shoflo co-founder Stephen Bowles presented to the room full of investors, entrepreneurs, and tech supporters. He received 64 percent of the audience vote.
Since its launch at the Starter Studio Demo Day in November, Orlando-based Shoflo has grown 200 percent. The company has provided cloud-based management services for 194 production companies at 271 events around the country.
“This was definitely a different event. We’ve never really pitched directly to investors as judges,” said Bowles. “The judges were challenging and direct, which I really appreciated. To be able to present well and win not only brings validation for Shoflo as a product, but also validates our ability to communicate our market’s problems and opportunity.”
The other presenting companies were: TaskAssure (Melbourne Beach), an angel-backed company that allows people to verify the performance of tasks through a smartphone app; Workherder (St. Cloud), a low-friction marketplace to help people connect with software developers to create custom software; and Alorum (Palm Harbor), an embeddable content marketing company launching SEOSlides.
Pape said the first VenturePitch of 2014 had a good number of applicants, getting pitch requests from as far away as Texas. Since the founding of VenturePitch in 2012, 36 companies have presented. 10 of those companies have gone on to raise close to $10 million in funding.
“Tonight was great. We’re excited about becoming a gathering point for Florida-centric investors and entrepreneurs,” said Pape. “The truth is that investors don’t invest in strangers, and if you want to meet Tim Cartwright of Tamiami Angel Fund or Richard Licursi of venVelo, this is a good place to start the conversation.”
For Shoflo, the prize was timely: accounting services from Cross, Fernandez & Riley.
“Going to do my taxes,” said Bowles.
