Scott Lane of Bay Ventures, is running this Startup Epicenter event here at Fenwick and West in downtown Mountain View, I’m one of the panelists that gets to ask some of the startups questions. They’re pitching to a group of entrepreneurs and VCs, it’s a community building event as well as a great way to learn about new startups.

They’re giving some great pointers on pitching from Robert Goldberg and Troy Boyd have you read my points on how to pitch? I’ve heard a lot of startups pitch, (not as many as a VC) but notice a lot of founders don’t do a good job communicating the value proposition.

They gave a few key goals, such as 1) focus on the first 30 seconds 2) Identify your specific goals right up front and do so succinctly. A few other goals: Always start with the end in mind, know your audience (whats in it for them) assume short buildings, set yourself up for victory in advance, bring backups of everything, preparation preparation. preparation.

I’m not going to be reviewing the companies, but really just pointing to them. Here’s some of the companies that are presenting:

DataMash:
“Datamash sends instant data messages between different documents and applications automatically keeping shared data fresh and accurate”. Appears to be a SaS model, marketing will be key for user adoption. Premium fees charged for revenue.

CollegeWikis
“We’ve developed a school-wide message board — like a “Great Wall” - that allows you to stay in-the-loop with new topics and events your friends are posting. We call it “iKnow, iShare,” and it’s synched with the topics your friends have posted to your school’s Wiki.” They have a facebook app as well. They will generate revenue from job advertisements of normal advertising.

Criteo
“Presenting the right content to the right user”. Also a SaS type of tool that will have revenue sharing from recommendations. Any website can deploy a recommendation engine for their site. They analyze user behavior of a website and then find patterns, and group with users with similar patterns. There’s a use case scenario available here.

Remapper
Real Estate application “REMap™ – the fast, easy way to make profitable real estate decisions. REMap’s mapping and reporting tools let you zoom in on a geographic area and easily forecast its future property values!”

There’s some other companies that presented, but I had to head back to the office, check out the list here.

I’m having hardware issues with my camera, I’m not getting a good stream, Ill be providing a few notes about the event and the different startups: