90 Days Work in Eight Minutes: LaunchBox Digital 2010 Demo Day

January 12th, 2011

By Joe Procopio

: Joe Procopio

RTP was a dark place for startups in the late 2000s.

When Chris Heivly first told me about his ideas for an accelerator program in the RTP, it sounded like an impossible task, but his passion was evident. At the time, I was just beginning to toy with the idea of ExitEvent, my own take on a digital startup community with accelerator style tools, and Chris and I shared the same frustrations.

But I knew if anyone had the skills to pull off an actual real-live incubator here, it was Chris.

RTP is #1 on the “Places Where We’re Headquartered” List

RTP is an awesome place to live, with so much quality of life that you can actually wake up to the sound of chirping birds and the distinct scent of vanilla wafting into your bedroom.

The area has more talent than you can shake a geek at, and it has most of the foundational tools in place for entrepreneurial success: A fair number of startups, helpful organizations like CED, NC IDEA, etc., and enough behemoth techie companies to bring in even more new talent and also invariably barf out decent crops of early-stage entrepreneurs.

So where were all the big success stories?

That question was the basis of several coffees (well, coffee for me, Chris doesn’t touch it, which is mind-boggling considering the demands of his chosen occupation), to discuss not so much the why, but the why not. Something was going to happen, that was inevitable. It was just a matter of when, how, and, of course, could it be sustainable.

Enter Lunchbox

When LaunchBox decided to move here a little more than a year ago, the stars aligned, mountains got moved, and everything started happening at breakneck speed.

That culminated at the first LaunchBox RTP Demo Day. It’s the third overall, if you’re keeping score, with the first two taking place in DC and producing, out of 17 companies accelerated, a ridiculous nine follow-on rounds and three exits.

People, those are good odds.

Ice… pocalypse?

The funny thing is it almost wasn’t. A freak wave of ice (well, if you’ve lived here long enough, it less “freak” and more “twice yearly”) put the Demo Day show in serious jeopardy. In fact, as I write this from the safety of my palatial offices (or “rumpus room”), I am NOT currently at this evening’s follow-on reception. But that’s cool. I’m all about the information, I’m not in it for the free drinks.

I’m sorry. I stopped for a minute to laugh.

Anyway, as I was on my way to American Tobacco for the show with the radio blaring warnings like “ZOMG! DO NOT GO OUT OF THE HOUSE! IT’S CHAOS! STAY AT HOME AND EAT YOUR FRENCH TOAST!” I expected the worst. Turns out, it was very well attended. And when I thought about it, I realized that I shouldn’t have been surprised. LaunchBox isn’t the only force behind the event, or even their own program. Far from it.

More Important Than Money

The biggest strength of LaunchBox is, without a doubt, the 100+ investors, mentors, and advisors on board to help the program and the companies within. Chris told me this. The startups themselves told me this. “More important than the money,” echoed one of the founders.

The second biggest strength is the outpouring from the community, mostly local, but even from folks like David Cohen from Boulder’s TechStars, who, along with TechStars co-founder Brad Feld, held an event here back in November that included spending a day with the LaunchBox startups.

Ice? That problem already has a solution. It’s called “gloves.”

So the investors, mentors, advisors, supporters, various community members, and I think I saw the Solid Gold dancers, all gathered in Bay 7 along with a covetous roster of investors from here as well as Boston, NY, even the West Coast, to watch these seven startups compress 90 days of sheer labor into eight minutes.

So Who Won?

Speaking of David Cohen, he gave Chris some advice early on – every week someone will ask you which company is the winner and every week you’ll have a different answer. Turns out this was indeed the case. Each company had and has its own strengths and shortcomings.

I’ve had several chances to drop by LaunchBox and talk to some of the startups, including one final visit last week before all the commotion. Here’s a take, as English as I can make it, on each one.

HealtheMe tackles obesity via a personalized learning “behavioral DNA” algorithm delivered via web and mobile. Before LaunchBox, they’d already been operating for three months with 40-50 subscribers.

Leaguescape allows for legal online betting on the data around fantasy sports. Yes. Legal online betting around fantasy sports. Aaron Houghton wondered aloud to me why they would need money in the first place. I answered: “Full page ads that say ‘Yes. This is legal.” Then degenerate sports and numbers freaks like me will knock their doors down.

Slipstream produces a Twitter plugin that reduces noise in the timeline by selectively hiding tweets based on information you give it.

Keona Health started life as a product development and research company but now they have software with a decision engine that optimizes primary care physician admissions, suggesting whether to come in and how to triage. UNC’s Campus Health is on board, and that’s their target market.

Fiscal Pie is online personalized financial planning and advice using social networking and peer group comparisons. They thrashed quite a bit during the semester, probably the most of any of the companies.

CityPockets converts daily deal (think Groupon) customers into return customers with CRM & targeted follow-up deals. Think retail hacking with a loyalty program.

Spring Metrics came away with the most buzz, which is odd when you consider they came to LaunchBox with “an idea on a napkin” but not at all odd when you consider the team, which is fantastic. Their software collects web analytics data and provides intelligence that connects directly to sales and customers.

Yeah, But Who Won?

We did. Was the event successful? I’d say hell yes. There were more people in Bay 7 on an icy, ugly, frozen morning than there probably were in all the schools and most of the hospitals.

And back to the lack of success stories and the why not? This is a great start. The when is obviously NOW (think big flashing neon letters) and as for the sustainability, well, that remains to be seen. After all, LaunchBox didn’t get that track record overnight.

But they’ll do it all over again with the application process in April.

Joe Procopio heads up product engineering for sports media startup StatSheet (statsheet.com). He also retains ownership in consulting firm Intrepid Company (intrepidcompany.com) and creative network Intrepid Media (intrepidmedia.com). Maybe his problem is all the coffee. He can be reached via twitter @jproco.

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90 Days Work in Eight Minutes: LaunchBox Digital 2010 Demo Day

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