Yesterday, I got to attend the Startup World Cup and enjoy pitches from the ten startups from around Australia! The ten participants where: Hip Money, Build Sort, Tide Foundation, Monarc Global, Gizmo 3D printers, My Med Kit, Mind Hive, Sensa Web, Start at 60 and Diabetes Neuromathix. All the pitches were of a high quality, which is expected from an event of this nature. Not all of them were generating revenue yet, but I can see all of them going on to have successful businesses. But there could be only one winner and the winner was Start at 60!

I was joined at the event by many of my cohort mates from Impact Boom Elevate+ as this was an opportunity for us to check out the Triffid ahead of our own pitch event on the 6th of June. I did try to network a bit, but it was nice to be able to retreat to a group of familiar faces and discuss the event. We all pretty much guessed that Start at 60 was going to win!

Start at 60, and Monarc Global had the strongest pitches in the set because they were live and making revenue. I gathered Hip Money, Build Sort, and My Med Kit are also live and making money. But their pitches weren’t as thorough as Start at 60 or Monarc Global. Gizmo 3D Printers are also live and making great progress, but they weren’t as exciting as Start at 60 or Monarc Global.

Sensa Web and Diabetes Neuromathix are great technologies that have proven their science, but they had not yet proven their business model. Sensa Web especially seemed to rely on the assumption that organisations care enough about their employees to pay for the expanse of the Sensa Web, which is far more efficient but also far more expansive than the current system. I am not sure how good of an idea it is to assume that most organisations care about the meat sacks. Steve Baxter, who was one of the judges, did point this out as well.

The only pitch that I was left completely unconvinced by was the Tide Foundation which wants to spread the Tide protocol. They want to safeguard our privacy and turn our personal data into an asset that the individual can monetise. So instead of Facebook making money of us, we make money of us. Great idea on paper, but I didn’t believe the pitch. Maybe if I looked more into the Tide protocol, I would get it. But from the pitch alone, I have more questions than answers.

Overall, it was a great event, and I am kind of keen to see if I can chase down the stream from the other regional competitions. I am especially curious about the Startup World Cup regional competition that took place in Bangladesh. I have heard that Dhaka is becoming a bit of hub of startup activity. So it would be nice if I could chase down the pitches! But certainly, I’ll try to tune into the watch parties for the rest of the regional finals and the grand finale in San Francisco, USA!