Upcoming Events
Nov 92022
open to tech entrepreneurs everywhere
Startup Showdown is a unique opportunity for early-stage startups to present to well-known investors and innovators in the tech ecosystem as they look to take their company to the next level. All finalists will pitch to guest investor judges while at the same time building long-lasting connections in the innovation ecosystem. This is the competition to be a part of, showcasing the next frontier of innovation and the most promising talent of the day.
Hosted monthly by Panoramic Ventures, Startup Showdown is going on tour in 2022, hosting 6 in-person events, and 5 virtual. Now, applications are always open for startups to apply.
Startup Showdown will be hosted in-person in Nashville, TN on Wednesday, September 28.
Startups
Attendees
FAQs
Event Overview
Guest Investor Judges
Our guest judges are eager to select tomorrow's success story today.
William is the co-founder and partner at Mucker Capital.
Prior to forming Mucker Capital, William was the SVP and Chief Product Officer of AT&T Interactive. Previously, as a fresh college graduate, he founded BuildPoint (Acquired by NYSE:ROP) – a SaaS provider of bid management & marketplace services to the commercial construction industry. William helped the company grow to over 250 employees and raised over $50M in venture capital. In between, he has led product teams at eBay, Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) and Spot Runner.
William holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and a MBA from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.
Marlon Nichols is the co-founder and managing general partner at MaC Venture Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionary founders building the future that the world wants to see.
Prior to MaC Venture Capital, Marlon was founder of Cross Culture Ventures and served as Investment Director at Intel Capital. Some of his current and previous portfolio companies include Blavity, Gimlet Media, LISNR, Mayvenn, MongoDB, PlayVS, Pipe, Thrive Market and Wonderschool, among others.
Marlon was recently honored as a member of the 2022 class of the LA500 list and as a top early stage investor on Insider’s 2022 Seed 100 list. Additionally, he is the recipient of MVMT50’s SXSW 2018 Innovator of the Year award, Digital Diversity’s Innovation & Inclusion Change Agent award and was a TechWeek 100 winner. He was named Pitchbook’s 25 Black Founders and VCs to Watch in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and one of Silicon Republic’s 26 VC professionals spearheading change.
Dr. Paul Judge has cofounded three companies that were acquired and has invested in over 30 companies. He is Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Pindrop. Previously Paul was cofounder of TechSquare Labs. Paul was also Co-Founder of Purewire, a web security company, that was acquired by Barracuda in 2008. Paul served as Chief Research Officer at Barracuda through its IPO in 2013. Prior to this, Paul was CTO of CipherTrust, a leader in email security, that was acquired by Secure Computing in 2006. Paul is the lead inventor of over 30 patents and has received many awards including being named to the Fortune’s Top 40 Under 40 List.
Haley “Zap” Zapolski is the Managing Director of Jumpstart Foundry, a pre-seed healthtech fund.
In her role, she primarily focuses on fundraising, investor relations, and building the JSF brand. She is passionate about startup community building and is the founder of NashTech, a grassroots organization on a mission to grow the startup ecosystem in Nashville, TN. Zap is co-host of “The Cap Table,” a podcast with intricate investor conversations about raising capital, finding the right deals, and investing in general. Outside of work she is a board member at Mending Hearts, an active neighbor in Bordeaux on the Bordeaux/North Nashville Participatory Budgeting Committee, and an enthusiast for Nashville’s latest restaurants and bars.
Since founding BIP Capital in 2006, Mark has built what is now Panoramic into the region’s most active Venture Capital firm and one of the most recognized brands in venture capital outside of Silicon Valley.
Mark has led investment rounds in more than 80 companies in numerous industries (Healthcare, Digital Media, Ed Tech, Enterprise SaaS, FinTech and Advanced Computing).
Mark graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology (where he lettered as a varsity baseball player) and received an MBA from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University.
Derrick Morgan is a former NFL linebacker who enjoyed an amazing 9 year career with the Tennessee Titans. Derrick has a passion to change the narrative of a traditional athlete. He is a champion of empowerment for the underserved as well as an advocate for financial literacy.
He is a co-founder of NexLegacy construction company, and engages with FEMA to deliver construction services to areas hit by natural disasters. Derrick is an angel investor, investing in dozens of companies over his professional career.
Derrick started KNGDM Group, an Opportunity Zone initiative focused on investing in projects and companies that generate a “double bottom line return.” He is an early investor in food sustainable company Beyond meat, as well as Bitwise, a tech startup that administers technology training for minorities.
Chris Sloan is chair of the Emerging Companies Team at Baker Donelson and focuses his practice on startups and other emerging businesses and also handles complex software and other IT transactions for both small and large companies alike.
Chris helps many early-stage, high-growth businesses with business planning and formation, venture capital funding, drafting and negotiating vendor and customer agreements, strategic contract negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property protection and other general business law and intellectual property law issues.
As the leader of the firm’s Blockchain & Cryptocurrency team, he also counsels clients on matters related to blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, and similar distributed ledger technologies.
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