Sixteen startups pitched for a cash prize at the first AZ Technology Council Startup Connect AZ, a high-energy all-day conference filled with education, networking, and a discussion of a variety of topics revolving around technology and entrepreneurship, mentorship, and funding. Startups were chosen from the four fastest growing industries in Arizona: clean tech, health and bio tech, education and STEM and e-commerce and SaaS.
In each industry breakout pitch session, the audience picked their favorite startup to compete head-to-head in the final pitch round for a $7,500 cash prize. Finalists were SeedSpot alumni Brett Approved, BISTEG USA, Picmonic and Tallwave’s 3D Smart Garments.
In the end the educational tech company Picmonic won the popular vote and took home the cash. Picmonic’s founders are two medical students that wanted to develop a way to retain all the massive amount of information during their studies. By using mnemonics, vibrant illustrations and an engaging audio/visual platform, you too can learn all about rhinovirus, eye anatomy and the central nervous systems within minutes. The most common comment overheard after the pitch was “I wish I had this during college,” – I concur.
“We are so thankful for Startup Connect AZ and our friends and peers who voted for us today,” said Adeel Yang, co-founder of Picmonic. “Picmonic is creating a new era of visual learning, and every bit helps us advance one step closer to our mission.”
The founders have also expanded the platform to support K-12 education as well and planned to expand the topics. “We are currently developing V2 of our online learning system and expanding our product to all medical fields including medicine, nursing, pharmacy and physician’s assistant. We also launched our first K12 product, based on 8th grade common core standards. We are beta testing this in four Arizona school districts.”
See what you missed at Startup Connect AZ below.
Read more coverage about our the 16 startups that pitched at Startup Connect AZ here.
Watch a demo of Picmonic here.
Photos provided by Mark Goldstein
International Research Center http://www.researchedge.com/
