Hall of Fame

The Best of the Best

Since 2009, over 500 startups have competed in the Founder Showcase Pitch Competition, with over 75 finalists competing on stage. Below we pay homage to finalists who achieved significant business milestones after the event. Congrats!

Founder Showcase Hall of Fame

    1st Founder Showcase (Q4 2009)

    The First ever Founder Showcase Champion has secured over $1m in funding, and names former Showcase Keynote Jason Calacanis as an investor.

    The neighbor to neighbor car sharing service has raised over $15m from the likes of August Capital, Google Ventures, and Shasta Ventures.

    The “OpenTable for product rentals” raised funding from a list of rockstar investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, and more.


    2nd Founder Showcase (Q1 2010)

    Shortly after winning the 2nd Founder Showcase, the mobile meeting app raised funding from Charles River Ventures, Shervin Pishevar, Bill Lee, XG Ventures, and others.

    The cloud computing startup has released multiple products, raised a seed round, and was featured in CRN’s “Emerging Vendors for 2011″.

    The e-learning startup raised funding from impressive angels like Keith Rabois, Russ Fradin, Jeremy Stoppelman, Naval Ravikant, Dave McClure‘s 500 Startups, and more.


    3rd Founder Showcase (Q2 2010)

    The public marketplace for venues and unique spaces closed a funding round shortly after winning the Grand Prize at the 3rd Founder Showcase.

    The furniture shopping app has grown consistently, and has gone on to power virtual demos with Pier1 Imports, 1-800-LIGHTING, and more.

    The video collaboration service provider has been lauded as a competitor to Skype, and received a “multiple million dollar” funding round from Salesforce.

    The puzzle company’s “Sudoku Unbound Volume 1″ reached #1 among all paid Kindle titles, and closed a significant funding round.


    4th Founder Showcase (Q3 2010)

    After winning the 4th Founder Showcase, the video wifi device and communication company was named in the Top 10 Mobile Startups of 2011 by Laptop Magazine.

    The QR code company’s Founder was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine’s “100 Brilliant Companies”, and they closed a seed round.


    5th Founder Showcase (Q4 2010)

    Shortly after winning the 5th Showcase, Breezy announced an angel round with a roster of impressive investors, and also launched an iPhone app and printer network.

    After coming in second place, the group messaging startup secured mentions in numerous media, and launched a new feature to mitigate email thread overload.

    The social travel site has been featured in numerous press, and closed a seed round from Quest Venture Partners, in order to expand its reach globally.

    Formerly ShowForce, the conference mobile app closed a seed round from Dave McClure’s 500 Startups, Jason Portnoy, and Jay Weintraub.


    6th Founder Showcase (Q1 2011)

    Shortly after winning the 6th Founder Showcase, Topicmarks closed a seed round, and 8 months later were acquired by Tagged.

    While not performing particularly well at the event, BookBrewer recently partnered with the Huffington Post as it enters the eBook market.

    The lunch meeting matching service has been featured in numerous media, and has expanded to New York and is running beta programs in other markets as well.

    The bluetooth accessory startup was the ‘Most Interesting Company” at the Founder Institute Mentor Awards, and was in the Denver Post.


    7th Founder Showcase (Q2 2011)

    Just five months after winning the 7th Founder Showcase, Kaggle raised an $11m round led by Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, and Yuri Milner.

    This white-label video site platform was accepted into Dave McClure’s 500 Startups shortly after the Founder Showcase, securing a seed-investment.


    8th Founder Showcase (Q4 2011)

    Too early to tell – stay tuned..