Utica, NY – Griffiss Institute and Wasabi Ventures would like to invite investors, entrepreneurs, and tech transfer enthusiasts to the Spring 2016 Commercialization Academy Demo Day on Tuesday, May 24, 2016, 5 – 8 pm. The event will take place at the thINCubator’s new location at 326 Broad Street, Utica, NY.
Eight startups will pitch a panel of judges and the audience on the companies they have built around Department of Defense intellectual property (IP) from the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) in Rome, New York. A live audience and a judges’ vote will be held, with two cash prizes each to be given to the winners of the two best pitches of the day.
Alumni VidFall, Lilo Life, and SkyTubeLive from the 2015 Commercialization Academy class will also provide updates on their companies. At last year’s Demo Day, VidFall won the $25,000 Judges’ Choice Award and Lilo Life won the $25,000 Audience Choice Award.
The Commercialization Academy is a Griffiss Institute entrepreneurial education program sponsored by the AFRL/RI. The Griffiss Institute welcomed Wasabi Ventures to lead the way in the program in January 2015.
“The Griffiss Institute is extremely excited about the progress that has been made in the Commercialization Academy. Wasabi Ventures has been successful beyond our expectations, generating ideas and putting teams together to create startups for the Spring 2016 Commercialization Academy Cohort. This process is truly unique and is being noticed by virtually everyone in the technology transfer and venture capital communities,” said Bill Wolf, Director of the Griffiss Institute.
The Commercialization Academy is based on the Wasabi Ventures Tech Transfer Accelerator (WVT2) and endeavors to find the right entrepreneurial talent with which to build great startups, while incorporating licensed AFRL technologies.
Each IP technology and entrepreneur went through an intense vetting process. Each entrepreneur selected embarked on a six-month acceleration process to build a piece of IP into a sustainable startup. These entrepreneurs have received an abundance of tools and resources, including a startup educational platform that has taught each of them the logistics of building a viable, scalable startup.
“It is great when you can find energetic domain experts with an entrepreneurial spirit who want to jump into something new and take chances on building something. That is what we have found in the Spring 2016 Commercialization Academy Cohort,” said Wasabi Ventures’ Managing Partner TK Kuegler.
For a team to be selected for Demo Day, they have to be in the licensing process, have moved their business along so that they are on a path to a plausible company, and be able to present at the event.
The following startup teams will pitch at the Spring 2016 Commercialization Academy Demo Day:
Inara – Veterinary telemedicine platform connecting pet owners with veterinarians and animal therapists via video chat on their smartphones.
OneTouchTrust – a merchant fraud prevention and dispute solution that provides a technology-enabled ‘Know Your Customer’ verification process using a combination of identification information and biometric security algorithms. Merchants can seamlessly and securely verify a customer before a transaction is fulfilled, protecting both businesses and consumers from fraudsters.
Covrt Security, LLC – A cybersecurity solution that removes the possibility of browser-based malware threats and ensures online privacy. The desktop application runs in the background without the user’s knowledge.
GeoPixi – A software platform that is the SnapChat for engineers. GeoPixi’s crowd-sourcing photo recognition app places the power of photos and geolocation into a comprehensive Fixed Asset Inventory Management System (FAIMS).
Xompass FaaS – an IIOT Field Intelligence as a Service (FaaS) platform that provides edge intelligence to billions of assets in the mining, water, power, oil and gas, and energy industries to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
SwitchNote – a platform designed for college students to easily connect with one another. Through the platform, they can upload and share study guides and notes, as well as ask questions about class assignments. All of the content is user-generated and organized by school and course subject.
Sravel – the go-to place to connect with your personal network while traveling. The app will allow each user to interact with more people by determining the activities between individuals within certain locations. It is also an opportunity for businesses to bundle data on what people are doing in these locations and offer strategic advertising opportunities.
CFO Technology Corporation – this platform is revolutionizing the way business people interact with their data by merging virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and gaming technologies to create the world’s first 3D interactive simulation environment (or game) for business. The environment is “real” because it is connected to the live data of your company.
As part of the Commercialization Academy program, every founding team member completes the proven Wasabi Ventures Academy. This free startup education program provides participants a thorough overview of the startup world and allows them to learn firsthand from working alongside Wasabi Ventures’ founders and other successful entrepreneurs. Participants are given access to Wasabi Ventures’ network of friends, advisors, and the more than 2000 prior graduates of the program in order to quickly connect with the startup world.
Wasabi Ventures’ approach to startup education is anchored by the Wasabi Ventures Academy, a program that is redefining startup education. Focused around the individual, the formal startup education curriculum teaches participants about the startup world, while they work towards potentially becoming a founder of a startup. With a combination of startup curriculum, resources, and opportunity, each individual can find exactly what they are looking for in the Wasabi Ventures Academy.