Today’s roundtable had a couple of California businesses and an Indian company pitching. Before I get to them, let me remind you about the Rackspace Cloud – 1M/1M Startup Challenge. Open to cloud-based startups only, this challenge begins with an application process. Five cloud startups will be judged finalists based on their applications and they will present their businesses during an online pitch competition on Thursday, May 30th. Four of the finalists will be awarded $1000 per month worth of cloud hosting for one year from Rackspace. The winner will be awarded $2000 per month worth of cloud hosting for one year PLUS a one-year scholarship to the 1M/1M program. To apply, please submit your answers to the application questions found here by the deadline of Friday, May 17th.
Sensa Energy Solutions
First, Sudeep Rikhy from Los Gatos, California, pitched Sensa Energy Solutions, a Bluetooth-based occupancy ID system that leverages mobile phones to interact with sensors that control lights in green buildings. Sudeep rightly observes that today’s sensors are motion detected, and if you sit still in a room, the lights often go off. His solution addresses this issue by pairing with the cell phone’s Bluetooth capability, and telling the control systems to switch off only when the person leaves the room. Sudeep also has other Bluetooth based energy management solutions that he wants to explore, and asked the question: Is funding in green buildings dead?
The answer is, anything to do with information technology based solutions to energy problems falls within the scope of what is getting funded these days. However, large, capital intensive Clean Tech projects that were fashionable a few years back are not so anymore. Sudeep’s project, therefore, is within the scope of what IS being funded. However, concept financing is very tricky these days, including with angels.
StartupFreak
Next, Sangeeta Vamanan from Bangalore, India, pitched StartupFreak, a portal where today technology startups are paying to publish articles about their solutions to be introduced to about 3000 small businesses that are offline. Tech startups pay $50-$100 for this privilege, and get 2-5 leads. Conversion is not guaranteed. The company is doing about $2000 a month. In addition, the company also offers web design and digital marketing services to offline businesses, bringing them online.
Sangeeta, however, wants to create some sort of portal where offline businesses ask questions about how to get online of experts a la Quora, but via a mobile phone. She expects the businesses to pay a subscription fee for this access. In addition, she wants those tech startups that are currently paying her to publish articles on her site, to pay instead for directory listings. These ideas are unproven yet.
Specialty Phosphors, Inc.
Last up, today, Padmanabha Ravilisetty from Cupertino, California, pitched Specialty Phosphors, Inc., that offers applications around a new material.
You can listen to the recording of today’s roundtable here.
As always, I would very much like to hear about your business, so let me invite you to come and pitch at one of our free 1M/1M public roundtables. We will be holding future roundtables at 8 a.m. PDT on:
Thursday, May 2, 172nd 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
Thursday, May 9, 173rd 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
Thursday, May 16, 174th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
Thursday, May 23, 175th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
Thursday, May 30, 176th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
If you want a deeper relationship with me, you are very welcome to join the 1M/1M premium program. If you have any questions about the program, please, first study the website, especially What to expect from the 1M/1M premium program and the FAQs. If you have additional questions, please email me, and I would be very happy to respond. Please note that I work exclusively with 1M/1M entrepreneurs.
I also invite you to join the 1M/1M mailing list for the ease and convenience of getting updates. This way we can stay in touch, and it will help you to decide if 1M/1M is a program for you.
Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, a virtual incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. Sramana has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.