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First Look Forum in 2009 was a Huge Success!

10/14/09. Seattle, WA: Northwest Entrepreneur Network Announces the Winners of First Look Forum!

NWEN Congratulates Findood, Finalists, and all 12 First Look Forum Presenters

At the award-winning historic Arctic Club Hotel in downtown Seattle, twelve scrappy entrepreneurs pitched their ventures to an audience representing the membership of 18 Puget Sound area investment groups. Over the course of the afternoon, companies from web 2.0 to clean tech, digital media to diagnostics, had three minutes to win the votes of attendees. In the tradition of American Idol, investors ranging from Alliance of Angels to Zino Society, BDV to OVP, voted for the most innovative ideas, promising teams, attractive markets and scaleable businesses.

In a close vote, the following five companies were selected to advance: Dibspace (funny money, serious business), Digital Scirocco (where content creates value), Geedra (bringing transparency and efficiency to construction sites), Findood (the online place to find food) and Heatflow Technologies (PCR diagnostic, bringing the holy grail of better-cheaper-faster to on-site physician testing). Ten minute presentations were followed by five minutes of Q&A from the audience, where entrepreneurs faced a combination Simon, Paula and Randy as attendees got into the weeds on the varied business models.

After the final votes were cast, Findood was announced as the grand prize winner—and in addition to the accolades received over cocktails, will be enjoying one free year of office space at the WRF Venture Center, courtesy of the team at WRF Capital/Washington Research Foundation. “We are pleased to be supporting NWEN and this interesting company, and welcome the Findood team to the WRF Venture Center,” offers CEO Ron Howell. Findood will also receive an entire set of office furniture from Working Spaces, and SwiftHR®-in-a-Box from Swift HR Solutions. “It’s like we’re a real company now!” quipped CEO Jamen Shively. In an incredibly gracious and impromptu acceptance speech, Jamen raved “It's great to have worked so hard for so long, and get this kind of validation! This experience has been great and is sure to take us to the next level!" He was just as enthusiastic about the company he was in: “Each of the finalists is a rock-star in our respective niches, but now I can tell you that if I had a vote Digital Scirocco would have had it!”

These finalists were in great company; presenters also included Aurumis (empowering paid content), CoCollage (cultivating community in great places), Glue (simple web and mobile content publishing), Greenbridge International (providing green training for manufacturers), PodCurry (the iPhone news delivery platform), Serra Media (hyperlocal imagination, hyperlocal innovation), and Re:Source Fitness (how powerful is your workout?). All twelve companies were coached and screened by investment professionals and serial entrepreneurs—ranging from Andy Liu at Buddy TV and TA McCann of Gist, to Susan Sigl of Seapoint Ventures and Bill Bryant of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The Northwest Entrepreneur Network congratulates all the presenters for their passion and fortitude, and notes that one of the selection criteria to participate in this program was that they had never pitched to an angel group membership or VC partnership—making yesterday’s feats particularly impressive. NWEN Executive Director Rebecca Lovell observes: “We know how much work these companies put in not just to preparing for the First Look Forum, but in bootstrapping their businesses from the beginning. We hope that yesterday’s event was both a celebration and an inflection point in these entrepreneurs’ paths to success, and couldn’t be happier to be a part of it!”.