77days until
Next DukeGEN Networking Event

Follow us on...

Sponsors

Angel Pitch Events

Present your start-up company to early stage investors. All Duke alumni, students, staff, faculty, parents, and invited guests, are welcome to attend these events.

7th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event, sponsored by Credit Suisse

posted Mar 26, 2013, 1:32 PM by Howie Rhee   [ updated ]

Over 40 Duke startups have applied to pitch at the 7th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event!

You're invited!  Attend our 7th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in San Francisco. The DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event is a great event for learning about entrepreneurship, seeing the latest Duke startups, and meeting other entrepreneurial Dukies.  We select six startups founded by Dukies to pitch to a panel of Duke investors. See our blog posts summarizing past events: 2011 in NYC, 2011 in San Francisco, and 2010 in NYC.
 
This event will be held on Wednesday, June 12th from 6:00-9:00pm at Google’s San Francisco Office (345 Spear St, San Francisco, CA 94105).

The Duke startups that will be pitching are:
  • AnyCloud, Inc. - Personal Meta Cloud 
    • Brian Jenkins, 1991, Palo Alto, CA, bjenkins@anycloud.io 
  • Coursefork - We are Github for courses. 
    • Elliott Hauser, 2005, Durham, NC, eah13@mac.com 
  • Dynamo Micropower - Alternative Energy Genset 
    • Jason Ethier, 2010, Boston, MA, jason@dynamo-micropower.com 
  • Ink* - World's first online tutoring marketplace 
    • Melvin Hines, 2011, Durham, NC, mhinesjr@inkacademics.com 
  • Jobbertunity - Eliminating manual resume drop at career fairs 
    • Ameya Kulkarni, 2013, San Francisco, CA, ak240@duke.edu and Amy Vaduthalakuzhy, 2013, San Francisco, CA, amy.vaduthalakuzhy@fuqua.duke.edu
  • Peer - Connect unacquainted professionals over live video 
    • Ofer Baharav, 2007, San Francisco, CA, ofer.baharav@alumni.duke.edu 
  • Your Perfect Beauty - Yelp for Beauty Products 
    • Daisy Jing, 2010, Los Angeles, daisy@yourperfectbeauty.com 

Our panelists for this year's event include:
- Josh Felser '86 '90, Freestyle Capital 
- Jay Jamison '92, BlueRun
- Jim Scheinman '88, Maven Ventures
- Ash Fortuna, AngelList

Notable past participants include:
- Getable (formerly Rentcycle), Tim Hyer
Coverhound, Basil Enan
- The Daily Muse, Kathryn Minshew
- Hukkster, Katie Finnegan

Prize will include a review of the winning team by Naval Ravikant, co-founder of AngelList

Thank you to our sponsor!


Next steps:
- Want to pitch your startup?  Sorry, the application is closed!
- Want to attend?  RSVP on Eventbrite

Organizers:
- Basil Enan '03, Coverhound
- Matt Koidin '05, Pocket
- Shaan Puri '10, Monkey Inferno
- Howie Rhee '04, Duke University
- John Solomon '03, SuperBetter Labs 

Questions?  Email us at dukegen@duke.edu

6th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event

posted Aug 30, 2012, 1:18 PM by Howie Rhee   [ updated Nov 9, 2012, 1:39 PM ]

Over 40 Duke startups have applied to pitch at the 6th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event!

Want to attend? You're invited!  Attend our 6th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in New York City. The DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event is a great event for learning about entrepreneurship, seeing the latest Duke startups, and meeting other entrepreneurial Dukies.  We select six startups founded by Dukies to pitch to a panel of Duke investors. See our blog posts summarizing past events: 2011 in NYC2011 in San Francisco, and 2010 in NYC.

This event will be held on November 13, 2012 from 6:00-9:00pm at Google's Offices in Manhattan (111 8th Avenue, Water Tower Cafe, 5th Floor).  Space is limited and an RSVP is required.
  • 6pm - Networking and Registration
  • 7pm - Program Begins

The Duke startups that will be pitching are:

  • Federated Precision, Inc. - Revolutionary, Scalable, Advanced Manufacturing Network 
    • Keith Smith, 2010, Deerfield Beach, FL, keith.smith@federatedprecision.com
  • Ivy  - Amplifying / uniting university payment networks 
    • Zach Abrams, 2007, New York, zachary.abrams@gmail.com
  • Juvo - Reinventing customer service for smartphones 
    • Anthony Versarge, 2010, New Jersey, anthony@versarge.com
  • Keona Health - Online Medical Advice 
    • Stephen Dean, 2009, Chapel Hill, NC, stephen.dean@keonahealth.com
  • Kwelia - Data Science for Real Estate 
    • John Njoku, 2003, Philadelphia, PA, john@kwelia.com
  • Seeds - Farmville meets Kiva  
    • Rachel Cook, 2006, New York, NY, rachel.cook@alumni.duke.edu
Our investor panel includes:
And special guest panelists:
  • Kathryn Minshew '08, Co-founder and CEO of The Daily Muse, Winner of the 4th DukeGEN Angel PItch Event
  • Howie Lerman '02, Co-founder and CEO of Yext
  • Chris LaSala '98, Director of Mobile Partnerships at Google
Thank you to our sponsor!


Do you want to pitch your startup idea to angel investors? 

Sorry, the application is closed!

Want to attend the event?

Last year we had approximately 100 attendees.  Free food and drink for all Dukies.
  • RSVP on LinkedIn.  Space is limited and an RSVP is required.
  • Free for Duke alumni, students, faculty, parents, and invited guests. 
  • Location: Google's Offices in NYC (111 8th Avenue, Water Tower Cafe on the 5th Floor)
  • Can't make it in person?  Watch it live on Duke's YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/duke
    • Program will start at around 7pm ET


Questions? Contact John Miles '00, '10 at johndcmiles@gmail.com and Howie Rhee '04 at hwr2@duke.edu

Hosted by 
Meghan Gallagher '11
John Miles '00, '10
Alex Guttler '05, '12
Howie Rhee '04 
Tracie Henson Rotter '04

5th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event

posted Mar 12, 2012, 8:06 AM by Howie Rhee   [ updated Jun 5, 2012, 1:49 PM ]

You're invited!  Attend our 5th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in San Francisco. The DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event is a great event for learning about entrepreneurship, seeing the latest Duke startups, and meeting other entrepreneurial Dukies.  We select six startups founded by Dukies to pitch to a panel of Duke investors. See our blog posts summarizing past events: 2011 in NYC2011 in San Francisco, and 2010 in NYC.

One team will win $10,000 from Freestyle Capital!

This event will be held on Tuesday, June 5th from 6:00-9:00pm in San Francisco at RocketSpace (181 Fremont St, San Francisco).
  • 6pm - Networking and Registration
  • 7pm - Program Begins
Our investor panel includes:
Our presenters include:
  • Corengi, Inc. - Humanize and Accelerate Clinical Trials. Ryan Luce 1994
  • Flicmob - integrate social media & media production. Scott Dacko 1993
  • GearListed.com - Social Gear & Adventure Directory. Anne Kallus 2007
  • Hukkster - Online personal shopping concierge. Katie Finnegan 2010
  • Pixton Comics - The social gamification of comics. Geoff Archer 1995 
Thank you to our sponsor!


Do you want to pitch your startup idea to angel investors? 

Unfortunately the deadline has passed!

Want to attend the event?

Last year we had approximately 100 attendees.  Free food and drink for all Dukies.
  • RSVP on LinkedIn
  • Free for Duke alumni, students, faculty, parents, and invited guests. 
  • Location: To be determined and announced.
  • Can't make it in person?  Watch it live on Duke's Ustream channel - http://www.ustream.tv/DukeUniversity
    • Program will start at around 7pm PT


Questions? Contact Basil Enan '03 at basilenan@gmail.com and Howie Rhee '04 at hwr2@duke.edu

Hosted by Basil Enan '03, Matt Koidin '05, and Howie Rhee '04 

4th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in NYC

posted Jul 18, 2011, 2:23 PM by Howie Rhee   [ updated Oct 5, 2011, 7:05 AM ]

You're invited to attend the 4th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in New York City on October 12th, 2011! 

The DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event let's selected Duke startups pitch to a panel of investors.   This year we had 38 teams apply and we've selected the top 6 teams to present. Come to this great event, network with other Dukies and hear some great pitches.  See our blog posts summarizing past events (2010 event in NYC and 2011 event in San Francisco).

This event will be held on Tuesday, October 12th from 6:00-9:00pm in New York City at Dogpatch Labs at 36 East 12th Street, 2nd floor, NYC

  • 6pm - Networking and Registration
  • 7pm - Program Begins

Our investor panel includes:
The Duke teams that will be pitching are:
  • SimpleEnergy (Showcase Company) - Yoav Lurie, Duke '05, Justin Segall, Duke '05
  • myDrugCosts - Dan Pollard, Duke ‘92 
  • ShelfRelief.com - Tito Bohrt, Duke ‘13 
  • CRE-DASHBOARD - Jill Homan, Duke ‘06 
  • CareProsper - George Mathew, Duke ‘03 
  • Perfect Beauty - Daisy Jing, Duke ‘11 
  • The Daily Muse - Kathryn Minshew, Duke ‘08 

Want to attend the event?

Last year we had approximately 100 attendees.  Free food and drink for all Dukies.
Do you want to pitch your startup idea to angel investors? 

Sorry, the application is closed.  Our next Angel Pitch event will be in San Francisco next Spring and again in NYC in the Fall.  

Questions? Contact Jozef Krakora '10 at krakora@gmail.com

Hosted by Jozef Krakora '10 and Howie Rhee '04

Great event in San Francisco, our 3rd Angel Pitch Event

posted Jun 6, 2011, 6:36 AM by Howie Rhee   [ updated Jun 7, 2011, 11:30 AM ]

PicasaWeb Slideshow



You're invited to the 3rd DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in San Francisco on June 1, 2011

posted Feb 17, 2011, 5:54 PM by Michael S. Cann Jr.   [ updated Jun 1, 2011, 5:25 PM by Howie Rhee ]

DukeGEN is hosting its third Angel Pitch Event.  We received 50 applications from startups founded by Duke alumni and students, and have selected seven of the startups to pitch at our event on June 1st at RocketSpace in San Francisco.  All Duke alumni, students, faculty, parents and invited guests are welcome to attend this free event.

Sponsored by

Thanks to Steve Allan '08


Thanks to Richard Allan Horning '69

Date:  Wednesday June 1, 2011 
Time:  6-9pm
Location:  RocketSpace - 181 Fremont St., San Francisco
Questions:  Contact Michael S. Cann Jr. T '95, Matt Koidin B '05, or Howie Rhee B '04 (hwr2@duke.edu)
RSVP:  Click here to RSVP for this event.
Watch on Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dukegen - event will begin at 6:30pm

Here are the Duke startups which will be presenting:
  • CommuterRx - Commuter benefits, fueled by Android
    • Team Lead: Benjamin Picard '07
    • Location: Fairfax, CA
  • Dynamo Micropower - Cheap power dense distributed power
  • Happy Toy Machine - Design your own toys online
  • LoudSauce - crowdfunded media buying platform
  • Rentcycle - OpenTable for product rentals
  • Ribbons - enable earnest friend job recommendations
    • Team Lead: Anthony Bishopric '08
    • Location: San Francisco, CA
    • Website: http://rbbns.com
  • Youbibi - China Travel Search 2.0


This video shows three of the presentations given by Duke founders at our early stage investor event at Dogpatch Labs in SF last year and should provide a sense of the format of the event for those who were unable to attend.

The investor panel includes the following individuals, who have built and sold companies for $1.4B:
  • Jim Scheinman T '88 of Maven Ventures, his early stage investment fund.  With over 15 years experience, Jim is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and adviser to consumer internet and mobile start-ups.  He is a pioneer in social networking and engagement marketing.  Jim is best known for his role as employee number one at Bebo, the third largest social network when it was acquired by AOL in early 2008 for $850M.  He was also the first business employee at Friendster.  Maven Ventures was the first investor in Social Gold which sold to Google in 2010 & is currently an investor/adviser at Tango, the leading mobile video call platform; and PageOnce, the leading mobile personal finance app. 
  • Josh Felser T '86, B '90 of Freestyle Capital, an early stage venture capital fund designed to fill the void between retreating angels and venture capitalists moving into later stage investments.  Josh is a seed investor and serial entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Freestyle Capital, Spinner (first Internet music service, sold to AOL for $320mm), Grouper/Crackle (video sharing service, sold to Sony for $65mm) & FYILiving.com (health information, launched in April 2010). He is also on the board of Duke's Center for Entrepreneurship.

  • Ryan Spoon T '03 of Polaris Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in seed and early stage investments in companies engaged in the information technology and life sciences sectors.  Ryan was the founder of beRecruited, the nation's number one online networking destination for high school student-athletes seeking recruitment from college coaches and universities.  beRecruited was acquired in 2007.  Ryan worked for four years at eBay where he focused on user acquisition and launched and ran Kijiji (eBay's U.S. classified advertisements site).  He also served as VP of Marketing at Widgetbox, a widget distribution platform.
  • Aaron Patzer E '02, founder and CEO of Mint, a free, simple, and secure personal finance web application which consolidates your financial life in one place.  Aaron became the Vice President and General Manager of the Personal Finance Group at Intuit when that company acquired Mint.com for US$170M in November 2009.  Prior to Mint, Aaron was a Lead Architect as Nascentric and the technical lead of the San Jose office.  Aaron was selected by Fortune Magazine to the Top 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40 in 2009 and Money Magazine named him as one of the top 8 Money Heroes of 2008.  He has twelve patents issued or pending to his name.

As with last year, the winning teams will be connected with "super angels" in Silicon Valley (thanks to Josh Felser).

Several of the companies which presented at last year's event have made significant progress since then.  RefYo, co-founded by Ed Spiegel E '99 and Kevin Lochner E '99 has tripled its revenues and turned down funding offers in favor of growing organically.  CoverHound, founded by Basil Enan T '03, has signed contracts with eight major auto insurance providers and recently joined the most recent AngelPad class.  Zipongo (fka FitNet), founded by Dr. Jason Langheier M '09, is in the process of closing an angel round, which includes some prominent investors from the valley.


RSVP:  Click here to RSVP for this event.

Watch on Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dukegen - event will begin at 6:30pm


Presented by:
Michael S. Cann Jr. T '95 - Event Lead
Matt Koidin B '05 - Operations Lead
Shea DiDonna B '10
Basil Enan T '03
Howie Rhee B '04

Sponsored by:

Thanks to Steve Allan '08

Thanks to Richard Allan Horning '69



Great 2nd Investor Pitch event in NYC

posted Dec 8, 2010, 1:15 PM by Howie Rhee   [ updated Jun 7, 2011, 11:32 AM ]

Picasa Web Slideshow


Audience Choice Winner:

Judges 2nd Runner Up:
FriendCal

Judges 1st Runner Up:
Republic of Fun
Winner:
CoverHound

NYC Investor Pitch Event on October 19, 2010 at Dogpatch Labs

posted Aug 3, 2010, 11:03 AM by Howard Rhee   [ updated Apr 5, 2011, 11:47 AM by Howie Rhee ]


Pitch to Duke early stage investors in New York City on October 19th!

Sponsored by SNR Denton

DukeGEN is hosting an event for Duke founders of "consumer internet" & "online media" ventures to present their business concepts to a panel of sophisticated early stage investors and venture capitalists. 

This event will be held on Tuesday, October 19th from 6:30-9:00pm in New York City at Dogpatch Labs at 36 East 12th Street, 2nd floor, NYC. This event is open to the entire Duke community and may be of particular interest to:

  • Entrepreneurs who seek funding for their ventures;
  • Angel investors and venture capitalists looking for new investment opportunities; and
  • Duke alumni who desire to develop contacts with other Blue Devils involved with new venture creation.

Our investor panel includes:

We received 39 applications from Duke startups and have selected and confirmed 8 Duke teams to pitch.
    • CoverHound (San Francisco, CA) - Basil Enan, Trinity '03 - Expedia for Car Insurance
    • Foodably (Palo Alto, CA) - Brian Schwartz, Trinity '09 - Dietary friendly local food recommendations
    • FriendCal (Durham, NC and New York, NY) - Andrew Brown, Trinity '11 and Lauren Gundrum, Trinity '09 - Bidding for your business
    • Medical Learning Games (Durham, NC) - Peter Lamar, Fuqua '12 -  Learning games for Health Professionals
    • MoxMe! (Mansfield Center, CT) - Danny Briere, Trinity '83, Fuqua '85 - Community-wide social calendaring platform
    • PhySmart (Springfield, VA) - Rachel Greenberg, Fuqua '99 - Connecting Medical Professionals to Vendors
    • Republic of Fun (Durham, NC) - Mike Rasmussen, Fuqua '03 - Crowd sourcing for game design
    • WingTips Interactive (New York, NY) - Kimberly Karpf Skelton, Trinity '03 - Social commerce tools to help friends share products they discover



Questions? Contact Tom Powell '09 at tom.powell@duke.edu

Hosted by Tom Powell '09 with Howie Rhee '04 with help from Jozef Krakora '10
Sponsored by SNR Denton

Fantastic DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event

posted Aug 3, 2010, 11:01 AM by Howard Rhee   [ updated Dec 8, 2010, 1:15 PM by Michael S. Cann Jr. ]

PicasaWeb Slideshow


Present your start-up company to early stage investors

posted Aug 3, 2010, 10:56 AM by Howard Rhee   [ updated Mar 17, 2011, 12:44 PM by Howie Rhee ]


DukeGEN hosted an event for the entire Duke community during which eight Duke founders of non-enterprise Internet businesses or consumer mobile application services, platforms, or applications presented their business concepts to a distinguished panel of Duke angel investors and early stage venture capitalists.  Our panelists have built and sold companies for a total of $1.4B.  Future DukeGEN events may focus on different industries.

This event was held on Wednesday, May 12th from 6-8:30pm in San Francisco at Dogpatch Labs (Pier 38, The Embarcadero).  See map at the bottom of the page.

The panelists selected the following 8 companies (out of 43 applicants) to present at this event:

FIRST PRIZE and AUDIENCE CHOICE
YouRock - Sponsorship of events and individuals.  Founder and CEO Jeremy Cotter T '02

SECOND PRIZE
FitNet - Empowering healthy living.  Founder and CEO Dr. Jason Langheier M '09

THIRD PRIZE
BizeeBee - Small business messaging and scheduling.  Founder and CEO Poornima Vijayashanker E '04

Canvert - Pay per ring lead generation.  Founder and CEO Scott Thomas T '96
CoverHound - Better way to find insurance.  Founder and CEO Basil Enan T '03
RefYo - Referrals on the social Internet.  Co-founder and CEO Ed Spiegel E '99 and co-founder and Director of Technology Kevin Lochner E '99
Social Stir - Dating for social media interactions.  Founder and CEO Allen Vance B '07
Stinky Teddy - Search engine optimized for now.  Founder and CEO David Hardtke T '94

The three winning companies won the opportunity to meet for an hour with the following three "super angels": 
1. Steve AndersonFounder and Managing Partner at Baseline Ventures
2. Manu KumarPartner at K9 Ventures
3. David LeePartner at SV Angel


The investor panel included:
  • Jim Scheinman T '88 of Maven Ventures, his early stage investment fund.  Jim is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and advisor to start-up companies.  He is a pioneer in social networking and engagement marketing, the predominant source of revenue for online social networks.  Jim is best known for his role as employee number one at Bebo, the third largest social network in the world when it was acquired by AOL in early 2008 for $850M.  He was also an early employee at Friendster.  Jim is currently the COO/CMO of PageOnce, the leading smartphone personal information management company.
  • Josh Felser T '86, B '90 of Freestyle Capital, an early stage venture capital fund designed to fill the void between retreating angels and venture capitalists moving into later stage investments.  Josh is best known as a co-founder and the President of Spinner, the first multi-channel Internet radio service which was acquired by AOL for $320M.  He was also a co-founder and the CEO of Grouper/Crackle, one of the first Internet video networks.  Grouper/Crackle was acquired by Sony Pictures for $65M.  In December 2009, Josh and several others launched The Start Project, an incubator.
  • Aaron Patzer E '02, founder and CEO of Mint a free, simple, and secure personal finance web application which consolidates your financial life in one place.  Aaron became the Vice President and General Manager of the Personal Finance Group at Intuit when that company acquired Mint.com for US$170M in November 2009.  Prior to Mint, Aaron was a Lead Architect at Nascentric and the technical lead of the San Jose office.  Aaron was selected by Fortune Magazine to the Top 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40 in 2009 and Money Magazine named him as one of the top 8 Money Heroes of 2008.  He has twelve patents issued or pending to his name.
  • Ryan Spoon T '03 of Polaris Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in seed and early stage investments in companies engaged in the information technology and life sciences sectors.  Ryan was the founder of beRecruited, the nation’s No. 1 online networking destination for high school student-athletes seeking recruitment from college coaches and universities.  beRecruited was acquired in 2007.  Ryan worked for four years at eBay where he focused on user acquisition and launched and ran Kijiji (eBay's U.S. classified advertisements site).  He also served as VP of Marketing at Widgetbox, a widget distribution platform.

Dogpatch Labs


















Dogpatch Labs is located on the second floor at Pier 38 show above from Google Street View.  Head into the alley, enter by the first door on the right and follow the DukeGEN signs to the top of the stairs to Dogpatch Labs.

Presented by:
History: The original idea for this event came from a conversation between Jim Scheinman and Michael S. Cann Jr. in December 2009.

1-10 of 10