Microsoft Ventures recently announced that it plans to run an accelerator program this spring for startups focused on Digital Work. With the deadline for applications to the Seattle-based accelerator rapidly approaching (due January 30th), Microsoft Ventures has been scouring startup scenes around the country recruiting promising early-stage ventures that are building scalable productivity applications, cloud-centric software platforms, and enterprise-grade solutions. Last week, our team at the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute was happy to host an event at the Leslie eLab in partnership with Microsoft Ventures to give NYC-based startups interested in the accelerator program an opportunity to pitch their ventures to the Microsoft Ventures team, as well as to an audience of early stage investors. It was a great night that brought together some remarkably talented entrepreneurs building startups that will significantly change they way business is done.
Microsoft is hosting these events around the country, and ultimately will bring the top 10-15 ventures out to Seattle for the accelerator. But, I for one left the night feeling proud and excited about the amazing things happening in the New York City startup community.
Checkout the startups that showcased at the event:
- Canvs is a project management tool that is touch-based and intuitive, for project members to visually see the other members of their team and the progress being made.
- Prsonas is utilizing hologram & artificial intelligence technologies to engage with customers and gather analytics in the physical world.
- CreativeWorx is solving the time capture problem. “The TimeTracker automatically captures how you spend your time…letting you focus on what you do best.”
- FunnelFire provides a deep company search on business development and sales team targets, to increase conversions and free up hours per day.
- Outleads is bridging the gap between analytics data, online marketing efforts, and customer interactions at non-e-commerce businesses.
- LeadsChat drive sales conversions through real-time chat.
- Yobe Sound develops artificial intelligence powered algorithmic software that enables studio level audio manipulation in a downloadable and/or SaaS application.
- Human Condition Safety is developing wearable ergonomic tracking for construction workers, to drastically reduce workplace injuries.
- MiFace has built software that delivers an automated recognition of mood, personality, and emotion in social media images. Founders are currently at NYU!
- Yarly is making photo digitization fun, local and friendly.
