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 also included local tech influencers and mentors.
For its second year running, the NH Speed Venture Summit had an incredible line up of investors participating including 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 typically paid attention to. “I enjoyed meeting a great cross-section of companies, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the NH startup ecosystem. 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” – Marlene Boyaner, Golden Seeds
This year’s participating startups hailing from New Hampshire’s thriving startup ecosystem showcased diverse, innovative solutions in the consumer products, medical device, biotech, education tech, diagnostics, therapeutic, construction, software, and other industries:
Vybe Software
Lodestone Biomedical
ecoText
Lucky & Me
Pure Pierce
TendoNova
Canopus Water Technologies
Buyer’s View
NOBL
TargetRNA
Reflen
Awato
Nolen Ortho
VentriFlo
Cyborg
LIM Software
TowGo
Thrvly
Madco3d
US Nanosolutions
The Mission Zone
“The Speed Venture Summit was a great event with a great format for start-ups. Raising money is one of the most time-consuming things a start-up 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/or angel groups in less than an hour and are actively scheduling three follow-ups in the coming weeks” – Jim Lamarche, Reflen
The summit wrapped up with a fireside chat with Deb Kemper of the Boston Forum of Golden Seeds, who was interviewed by Mark Kaplan of New Hampshire Public Radio. The attendees gained sound advice from Ms. 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 fireside chat.
The 2019 Speed Venture Summit will take place in Fall 2019.
