As part of EyeforTravel's San Francisco Summit (March 14-15 2016), we teamed up with Amadeus and Travel Startups to showcase the best up-and-coming companies in the travel space. The day saw successful entrepreneurs and investors take to the stage to face questions from the eager startups, culminating in the pitches in the afternoon.
The Entrepreneur panel included:
- Heddi Cundle, Founder, MyTab.co
- Jim Pickell, President, HomeExchange.com
- Gadi Bashvitz, Founder & CEO, OLSET
- Kerri Ann Zeil, Director, Amadeus for Startups
- Sara Margulis, CEO, HoneyFund
With the investor panel forming of:
- Nancy Hayes, Managing Director, Golden Seeds
- Saaed Amidi, CEO and Founder, Plug and Play Tech Center
- George Arabian, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Steelhead Ventures
- Roopak Pati, Investment Banking Associate, Needham & Company
In the latter half of the day, startups ten had 10 minutes to pitch to our audience and our judges to be crowned the Startup of the Year. The judges marked each pitch on 7 criteria, including viability of the the company, uniqueness of the product and the innovativeness of the idea. 2016 turned out to be the closest year to date, with the top 4 being nearly indistinguishable, only separated by 2 or 3 points!
The 2016 runner up was Seatwizer, a service which allows users to compare like-for-like seats from competing airlines to see exactly what you are paying for and how you can get the most comfort for your money.
The winners of the day were the team at Grabr, the on-demand delivery service which allows users to get anything they want from anywhere in the world, delivered for by a traveller. The service has already delivered thousands of orders, and could be the best way to get your favourite items delivered from the USA, Europe and beyond!
Thank you to everyone who got involved with our Startup Village and the San Francisco Summit as a whole, we had a great time running the event and hope to see you next year!
GW