Meet our startup showdown founders who arebuilding something from nothing

Kristy McCann Flynn

Co-Founder and CEO, GoCoach

GoCoach meets people right where they are, right now, with personalized coaching and blended learning to upskill anyone – entry level to executive level in hard & soft skills.

The preparation and mentoring behind the showdown is the best part. I was able to work with tons of visionaries to refine my pitch, aid in my company evolution and prepare me for the many journeys of an entrepreneur. All this hard work added to GoCoach winning – when you are surrounded by experts that care – anything is possible!

Cory Yates

Cory Yates

Co-Founder and CEO, Recruiting Analytics

Recruiting Analytics is a sports technology and data company with patent-pending AI-powered player tracking technology that unlocks athletic data from video to help college football programs gain a competitive advantage and help high school coaches increase visibility of their players to college coaches.

The experience was phenomenal end-to-end starting with the seamless application process, to the culmination of a first-class pitch competition event. We benefited greatly from the mentors who were instrumental in helping us refine our value proposition while offering sound GTM guidance.

We encourage founders from varying backgrounds to participate in Startup Showdown, you won’t regret it.

Imge Su Cetin

Founder and CEO, Defy Trends

Women led start-up that provides traders & investors with AI and data-driven crypto intelligence and education to make better investment decisions.

Defy Trends uses on-chain analysis and high tech data science algorithms to provide data insights based on fundamentals and sentiment.

Startup Showdown allowed us to get great exposure to the industry and really learn first-hand pitching in front of a large audience.

I would highly recommend doing it for your startup!

Anthony Joiner

Founder, Blooksy

Blooksy is a cloud-based software platform that has everything authors need to easily write, publish and distribute their books.

The startup experience showdown is like basic training for the army. You are forced to evaluate who you are as a startup company and founder, while getting real time feedback from people whose only goal is to make you better AFTER the experience.

If you’re an entrepreneur and you meet the requirements, I’d recommend throwing your hat in the ring – it will be well worth it for you.

It definitely was for me.

Tina Williams-Koroma

Founder, CyDeploy

CyDeploy is a B2B technology product company that provides a SaaS solution enabling organizations to make security changes (updates) with confidence to their systems.

 

The entire experience was very enriching, especially the coaching at each phase, semi-finalist and finalist. I loved getting to choose a song to make my “entrance” on the virtual stage for the live event, and the polling for audience feedback on the pitches!

And of course, the funding has been super helpful in helping bring my idea to market! I certainly recommend participating.

Kevin Mobolade

CEO, Swipe Credit

Swipe Credit makes credit more intuitive, more purposeful, and more secure. Through an array of financial products that merge simplicity and automation, Swipe Credit help members manage their money better.

Abraham Ventura

Founder and CEO, Pitch Gauge

PitchGauge is software for businesses to minimize the difficulties and dangers of processing a property inspection.

The team at Startup Showdown was so helpful, insightful, and easy to work with. During the initial interviews, before the competition, I was able to get very helpful and constructive advice on improving my pitch. Most of the advice I received was unique, and I had not heard it before.

The whole experience was highly beneficial. We are super delighted to have participated in such a well-organized event.

Georges Duplessy

Co-Founder, Virtual Badge

Virtual Badge is a B2B Enterprise SaaS identity platform for workforce and risk management.

The solution allows work sites to ensure end-to-end compliance for all of their employees and contractors.

Greg Reffner

Greg Reffner

Founder and CEO, Abstrakt

Abstrakt is a real-time call coaching software for sales teams. Abstrakt is working to redefine the Conversational Intelligence market and offers Real-time Conversational Coaching Software as an alternative to reactive analytics via call recording solutions.

Prior to competing in Startup Showdown I never really understood how to tell Abstrakt’s story to investors. Being able to participate in Mentor Day, and then having 1:1 time with Paul Judge; I felt as though in just a few short hours I was able to accelerate my pitch and Abstrakt’s story to the next level.

Regardless of where your company is, I would recommend competing in this competition 1000%!

Marcus Cooksey

Marcus Cooksey

Founder and CEO

DUKE.ai is a SaaS platform for automated document processing workflows for applications such as back office payment processing, bookkeeping, and accounting.

DUKE.ai enables financial institutions and transportation companies to increase back office efficiency by, decreasing document processing costs and paying carriers (or receiving payment) within 1-4 hours of delivery.

I made the assumption that my pitch deck clearly identified my targeted customers. However, during the 1-on-1 mentor session, I was given suggestions to better convey the targeted customers across DUKE.ai product lines. This modification changed how I presented the business problem and solution for the live pitch.

Patrick Erin Murphy

Patrick Erin Murphy

Founder and CEO

Togal.AI solves the most time-consuming part in the bidding process by utilizing cutting-edge deep machine learning technology to analyze blueprints.

Shawn Smith

Shawn Smith

CEO

1 True Health is a technology-enabled clinical services company that offers Virtual First Preventative Care through delightful services and intelligent software to help their patients better manage chronic and acute conditions. They partner with Clinical Practices, Hospitals, and Senior Living Communities to serve their patients with regular, recurring communication, disease-specific, and health/wellness education.

Our experience with the Startup Showdown far exceeded our expectations.  The entire program that Panoramic Ventures has created with the Startup Showdown greatly benefits the participating companies.

Mentor Day was a phenomenal learning experience. Receiving feedback on my presentation from multiple successful entrepreneurs and investors was invaluable.  Gaining advice directly from Paul Judge helped us to understand how to refine and improve our investor conversations through this Seed Round and on to Series A.

Finally, as a winner of Startup Showdown, we have become part of the Panoramic Founder Success Program.

Ania Rodriguez

Ania Rodriguez

Founder and CEO

JourneyTrack.io is a customer-first, enterprise-grade SaaS experience management platform, enabling organizations to understand, optimize, and prioritize their customer experience.

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