Local firms strut their stuff

If you have a new idea, it can be very tough to get funding to take that idea to market.  One way to try and attract funding is to show off your idea.

For 19 years, one way to do that is an event called DEMO. It lets idea people have a few minutes on centre stage to demo their idea while people with money listen.  Last week in Palm Desert, California it was DEMO ’09.  Reflecting economic reality, the number of companies presenting was down about 50 per cent from past years.

Xandros is based in the U.S. with their development lab in Ottawa. They launched Presto, a software application allowing your computer to boot up in seconds rather than minutes. You don’t open up Windows, yet you still access most functions. 

Gazaro of Ottawa demonstrated their sales flyer. The application tracks down online items related to your interests and sends them to you in the form of an electronic flyer. Gazaro received a million dollars in seed money in 2007. 

Chief executive officer Sam Zaid tells me that it was a great event, lots of positive feedback, plenty of contacts, both for investment and partnerships. It cost several thousand dollars but Zaid says it was money well spent and that he would go back “in a heartbeat.”

The big trend was helping you find information, organize it, and present it in a useful fashion. Some of the top pitches were Assurion, which organizes your mobile device phone book; Gwabitt, which automatically strips contact info from an email and puts in your Outlook address book; Gagopost, which helps manage your personal blog and Vokle, which lets you run live video discussions about your product or hobby.

Other pitches include Project Guru from SmartyCard, website with kid’s games; Skout Out is a dating tool to let you talk via Bluetooth to other singles that are nearby; and Silverstone Solutions which helps find potential kidney donors and those in need.

The next DEMO session will be in September.

Website of the week www.demo.com
The official site, which includes videos of all Demos.

Upcoming show
This Sunday on Tech Now, how wind turbines on top of buildings capture urban wind power.
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