Voting opens for Venture Madness top 64 startups

Time to break out the brackets for Venture Madness 2016! This event, brought to the Valley by Invest Southwest and Arizona Commerce Authority, is where the top 64 startups go head-to-head in a pitch competition and vie for a portion of the $100,000 prize and the chance to be crowned champion. The first elimination round begins tomorrow … Read more

Tech community mourns loss of rising star developer

The local tech community is mourning the sudden death of a rising star software developer. This last week, Ian Preston, 19-years-old, tragically took his own life according to his father Stuart Preston. “This was totally unexpected and we did not see it coming,” Stuart said in our interview. No additional details were released. Ian fell … Read more

Arizona makes workhorses—not unicorns—and that’s a good thing

Guest Blog by Hamid Shojaee, founder Axosoft, Pure Chat & AZTB The Bay Area is overrun with horses—unicorns to be exact. And while I wish I was referring to the horned, majestic creatures of lore, I’m actually talking about privately-held startups that have $1 billion or higher valuations. Venture investor Aileen Lee coined the term … Read more

Who's got the moola? Investors funded these Arizona startups

More than halfway through 2015 and Arizona is on track for another great year of funding. These are the latest funding announcements that occurred May to July.   eVisit Gilbert-based telehealth software startup eVisit announced the raise of $1 million in seed funding this week led by Alan Ram, Founder of Alan Ram’s Proactive Training … Read more

Calculators required – SaaS metrics you need to attract investors

Photo contribution Thomas Hawthorne Class was in session at Axosoft headquarters during Phoenix Startup Week when founder of Pure Chat Hamid Shojaee spoke about metrics every Software as a Service (SaaS) firm needs to know to build their business and attract investors. Shojaee said none of these metrics help out a SaaS firm if they aren’t in … Read more

Don't try to be something you're not – Phoenix Startup Week Day 4

Co-written with Jesse Millard and photo contributions from Thomas Hawthorne Today the Phoenix Startup Week speaker theme was about knowing who you are, understanding your competencies and don’t try to turn your company into something it’s not, including the next Google. TK Kuegler of Wasabi Ventures kicked off the day at GoDaddy and gave startups advice on … Read more

Venture Madness announces its sweet 16 – updated

The next round of Venture Madness brackets leaves only 16 startups who will move on to the final, live-demo portion of the competition for a chance to win their share of $50,000. Jonathan Ariano, chairman of Invest Southwest comments on the startups, “[They] are shining examples of the entrepreneurship and innovation happening in the Southwest … Read more

Software cos. win big at ACA Innovation Challenge

There’s no secret that software companies are bubbling up in the Valley and making headway in the Arizona tech space. Today, software companies from around the state dominated the ACA Innovation Challenge winner circle. Today, the Arizona Commerce Authority announced its six winning companies in the Fall 2014 Arizona Innovation Challenge (AIC) awarding each $250,000 to … Read more

32 startups advance in Venture Madness

This round of brackets have closed leaving 32 of the original 64 startups from around the Southwest to compete head-to-head to win their share of $50,000 in 2015 Venture Madness. From here, it’s down to the final 16 companies who will compete in a live-demo event held between March 4-6, 2015. Jonathan Ariano, chairman of … Read more

Top 10 finalists named in ACA Innovation Challenge

It’s come down to ten companies all vying for a chance to win up to $250,000 in the Fall 2014 Arizona Commerce Authority Innovation Challenge. The Challenge is a bi-annual competition where startups and early-stage companies compete for capital to grow their business and advance innovation and technology opportunities in Arizona. READ: Who won the … Read more