On Thursday, July 11, Ultra Light Startups hosted a successful NYC Bitcoin Pitch Event. Nine entrepreneurs provided two minute pitches on their Bitcoin start-up businesses. Graham Lawlor and Tatiana Bakaeva of Ultralight hosted the event.
The evening was structured with nine 2 minute pitches from different Bitcoin related start ups. At the conclusion of the evening the audience selected three winners for in-kind prizes. Four panelists, including Andrew Chang (Founding Partner, Liberty City Ventures), John Frankel (Partner, ff Venture Capital), Nikhil Kalghatigi (Principal, SoftBank Capital), and Matthew Witheiler (Principal, Flybridge Capital Partners) from venture capital firms provided guidance to each start up following their presentations. Bitcoin related start-up presenters included, Divya Thakur (Developer, BTX Trader), Shawn Sloves (Co-Founder, Atlas ATS), Ayoub Naciri (Co-Founder, artaBit), Andre De Castro (Ecoincashier), Jesse Heaslip (Co-Founder, Bex.io), Aric Fedido (Founder and CTO, OpenWallet), Kingsley Edwards (LeetCoin), Shamoon Siddiqui (CEO, Crypto Street), Megan Burton (Founder and CEO, CoinX). At the conclusion of the evening, Megan Burton of CoinXwas selected as the winner and runners up included Aric Fedida of Open Wallet and Shawn Sloves of Atlas ATS.
First prize went to Megan Burton who used her two minutes to discuss her new company CoinX, a digital currency exchange. CoinX serves as a virtual currency platform for the buying and selling of Bitcoin, Namecoin, Devcoin, Litecoin, Ixcoin, PPCoin, Terracoin, and additional digital currencies. CoinX specifically provides services to buy and sell digital currencies, accept payment in digital currencies and create a free Bitcoin wallet.
The overarching purpose of this first Ultra Light Bitcoin Startup event was to provide necessary tools and advice to early stage Bitcoin startups. With time allotted to sell their company, each start-up representative not only practiced their sales pitch but also then received guidance from the panel on how to refine their investor pitch. The four venture capitalists on the panel then provided insight on how investors evaluate startups. With the Bitcoin currency growing in prominence, Ultra Light Startups made a wise decision to carve out an evening to feature Bitcoin startups.
Ultra Light Startups events take place the second Thursday of each month in New York and Boston. Events on average have an audience of around 150 to 250 attendees. Ultralight Startups ventured into the world of Bitcoin on July 11 and were pleased with the results as well as the opportunities that will follow from this step.