The 2018 New Hampshire Speed Venture Summit took place Wednesday, November 28 at the Manchester Country Club. The unique business matchmaking event hosted by Live Free and Start, an initiative of the NH Tech Alliance, brought together 21 New Hampshire early-stage startup companies and 18 investors for a 90-minute speed pitching session capped off by a networking event and fireside chat that included local tech influencers and mentors.
For its second year running, the NH Speed Venture Summit had an incredible lineup of investors participating including representatives from 10X, Alumni Ventures, First Run, Impact NH Fund, North Country Angels, Northeast Angels, Rines Fund, SideCar Angels, Wasabi Ventures, Golden Seeds, Maine Angels, Valia Investments, Hypertherm Ventures and several individual investors.
The highly-regarded speed venture pitching concept is not only unique in that it allows both investors and startups to have a one-on-one meeting which is often hard to secure at traditional events, but it also enables investors to meet different types of companies they may not have otherwise.
“I enjoyed meeting a great cross-section of companies, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the NH startup ecosystem,” said Marlene Boyaner of Golden Seeds. “This was a well-managed event and we were able to get a good initial read on a number of startups quickly. I look forward to our continued participation next year.”
This year’s participating startups, hailing from New Hampshire’s thriving startup ecosystem, showcased diverse and innovative solutions in the consumer products, medical device, biotech, education tech, diagnostics, therapeutics, construction, software and other industries. Participating startups included:
Awato
Buyer’s View
Canopus Water Technologies
Cyborg
ecoText
LIM Software
Lodestone Biomedical
Lucky & Me
Madco3d
NOBL
Nolen Ortho
Pure Pierce
Reflen
TargetRNA
TendoNova
The Mission Zone
Thrvly
TowGo
US Nanosolutions
VentriFlo
Vybe Software
“The Speed Venture Summit was a great event with a great format for startups,” said Jim Lamarche of Reflen. “Raising money is one of the most time-consuming things a startup founder can do. It all starts with networking and relationships and that’s what SVS is all about. We were able to get in front of six individual investors and angel groups in less than an hour and are actively scheduling three follow-ups in the coming weeks.”
The summit wrapped up with a fireside chat with Deb Kemper of the Boston Forum of Golden Seeds, and was interviewed by Mark Kaplan of New Hampshire Public Radio. The attendees gained sound advice from Kemper on early-stage startups and investments and were provided with great answers and feedback during a live Q&A session to wrap up the event.
The 2019 Speed Venture Summit will take place in Fall 2019.