Betaspring companies present at Launch Day event

By Emily Greenhalgh
PBN Web Editor
Twitter: @EGreenhalgh

PROVIDENCE – CEOs of the 13 fledgling companies from Betaspring’s inaugural fall session speed-pitched themselves and their companies to a full house including Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee on Thursday evening in hopes of gaining equity and support.

Launch Day, as the event was called, was the final step for the startups that spent the last 12 weeks in the intensive, mentorship-driven program.

After quickly bringing the company CEOs on stage to the Rocky theme song, Betaspring co-founder and managing partner Allan Tear welcomed the crowd, thanked the mentors and explained what makes the startup accelerator so popular.

“Community is the new currency,” said Tear, adding that in a world where capital comes from anywhere and where the tools to create a startup can be found anywhere, having a strong community of partners, peers and mentors is what makes a real difference in the startup world.

After Tear’s introduction, the CEOs of the 13 companies each participated in a four-minute pitch session. Jakob Garrow, the CEO from Worldbrain, started the show, explaining his Web platform that helps teachers and parents plan educational travel.

After Garrow, CEOs from the other 12 startup teams took to the stage in turn to pitch their ideas to the crowd.

TennisHub’s Eddie Ross donned tennis whites and a blazer to introduce his social platform designed to help tennis players of all skill levels find partners, book court times and enroll in group events.

The CEO of Rootless.me talked about how his company’s ride-sharing platform helped people get in and out of New York City in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the CEO of Kurator described how her system helps stop the “avalanche of information” Internet users are faced with everyday.

The other fall 2012 teams included:

• AutoBike – The makers of an automatic shifting bicycle.

• Crunchbutton – A one-click food buying system that allows consumers to have their favorite foods paid for and delivered with just one click on their computers or mobile devices

• Greentape – A system that brings merchants additional revenue streams through the use of plug-and-play sensors and a smartphone application that gives customers walk-in rewards and delivers product stories to their mobile devices.

• HealthID Profile – The makers of medical ID bracelets that infuse fashion and technology.

• Pennant - A program that brings the power of desktop advertisements to mobile devices.

• Plandree - A collaborative vacation planner that eases the planning process and helps users discover new experiences.

• Scholrly - A research search engine that makes it easy to explore connections between related work and domain experts.

• TouchVu - A system that allows small businesses to instantly convert their Facebook business pages to mobile device-friendly websites.

• Umbie DentalCare - A Web-based management solution for dental practices that provides functionality while meeting HITECH law requirements.

Since its 2009 inception, Betaspring has launched 57 startups and helped raise more than $20 million in capital.