Seven technology-focused startups pitched their business plans to a packed house at the Pittsburgh Opera yesterday at the 10th Demo Day in the last five years of Innovation Works AlphaLab incubator. The event also included a University Preview, where five companies developing technologies at local universities explained their research and pitched their companies to investors as well. Technologies previewed ranged from cloud-based predictive analytics to a power-generating shoe insert to novel cancer detection technology.
Tune into 104.7 FM this Saturday from Noon to 1 pm to hear Audrey Russo and Jonathan Kersting of TechVibe Radio interview all of the companies who presented.
Here is a quick overview of all of the companies that presented:
AlphaLab:
Workshirt - Workshirt used mobile technology to help people discover, capture and share experiences. Since entering the AlphaLab program in January 2o13, Workshirt has developed two web-based products – Photailor, a demand-driven photography marketplace; and HitchedPic, a photo sharing app specifically for wedding industry.
PoweredAnalytics – PoweredAnalytics makes it easy for developers and data scientists to use Big Data and predictive analytics to optimize their products and processes. Powered Analytics is a cloud-based platform for automatically creating and operationalizing predictive models in mere minutes.
Woo with Style – Woo With Style is a web app and mobile website that helps style-challenged men know what looks good on them. Woo with Style shows men how to look their best with personalized outfit recommendations from a female perspective.
Meaningfy – Meaningfy has built a scalable platform to deliver on-demand market intelligence services to sales and marketing professionals in real time. Meaningfy uses a range of machine learning algorithms to separate relevant information from noise that needs to be filtered out.
SolePower – SolePower is an energy harvesting company bringing a power generating shoe insole to market. The technology captures the energy from walking and converts it into usable electrical power, which is stored in a rechargeable battery attached outside of the show via USB connection.
NetBeez – NetBeez is a first-of-its-kind network monitoring tool for enterprises that test and validates the network from the end-user perspective. This unique approach relies on distributed monitoring agents that simulate user interactions with the network and its applications, providing real-time outage detection before users are impacted.
Digital Dream Labs – dreamWare is a platform that bridges that gap between worlds: a nostalgic, hands-on learning meets engaging, digital technology. Digital Dream Labs‘ product, children solve simple sequence puzzles in real life that are transmitted wirelessly to a tablet or other electronic device for continued interaction.
University Preview:
Lumator – Lumator provides intelligent, automated services that optimize how residential electricity consumers buy and use electricity.
Solvvy – Solvvy uses the wisdom of the Web to intelligently automate troubleshooting.
Institute of Consultative Bioethics – ICB’s EthAssist software delivers a full-fledged, searchable and user-friendly learning CMS that includes current and relevant academic, legal and applied bioethics knowledge.
EuTalk is a mobile app that enables people with communication disabilities (autism, stroke) to communicate.
NanoVision Diagnostics – NVD is commercializing a novel cancer detection technology that conducts an optical analysis which provides earlier and more accurate cancer detection.