Meet the finalists of Vienna’s Startup Week

The Vienna based Startup Week 2011 is in full swing after a day packed full of notable presentations and panels from the likes of Erik Bovee, Lars Hinrichs, and Tariq Krim. However, the knowledge and networking isn’t the only thing happening in the Haus der Industrie this week.

Beginning on Monday, and continuing into Tuesday of this week, 50 selected startup teams were put through the wringer and provided with workshops on topics ranging from meeting the lawyer, to meeting the investor, to pitching essentials. The culmination of this intense two-day program arrived Tuesday afternoon when each team presented their pitch to a panel of 20 VC’s, angels, and investors.

It was my great pleasure and honor this evening to announce the top 10 finalists that will complete in a live pitch session for the grand prize: A 3 week stay in Santa Cruz, with a heavy round of hands on support and networking facilitated by Speedinvest USA.

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The finalists are:

• DoubleRecall – A Ljubljana, Slovenia based startup that focuses on web and mobile apps. DoubleRecall focuses on brand-building campaigns that require users to actually read an add, and prove it. DoubleRecall claims that their unique offering provides publishers with 12x the monetization when compared to traditional banners.
• Loftville – Hailing from Hamburg, Germany loftville provides a members-only real-estate marketplace. The goal is to pool qualified real-estate seekers, leveraging the power of group purchasing to attract the best rental offers. loftville pre screens both supply and demand parties, thus saving suppliers time and money in marketing and selection process, while upping the likelihood that renters get the space they truly want.
• Mykoob –  Riga, Lativa based Mykoob is a social school network targeted at K-12 institutions. The startup provides teachers with the automated management of grades and attendance, class schedules and reports, and watches over the financials of education, i.e. the purchasing of study materials.
• Salespod – They might be from Zagreb, Croatia, but Salespod refer to themselves as the Swiss Army knife of the mobile workforce. Salespod provide field sales and services automation for smart phone and tablet toters. Combining real-time coverage of field work and analytics, Salespod fosters growth in sales numbers and productivity through collaboration.
• Piano – Bratislava, Slovakia based Piano Media is building a common payment system that publishers can readily use to charge for exclusive and premium online content and services. Users of Piano pay one flat monthly fee and can access this exclusive content across a growing network of media publishers.
• SaveUp – Warsaw, Poland based SaveUp effectively converts any smartphone to a new sales channel. Currently the technology focuses on media; books, music, movies and video games, and allows users to snap a photo of their object of desire, and make a purchase right then and there. If said object has a digital alternative, SaveUp will present the user with options to download it right then and there.
• PocketGuide – Budapest, Hungary based PocketGuide is the world’s first and only city guide application that functions off of audio cues, eliminating the need to the end user to fiddle with their phone while cruising foreign cities. In addition to being the perfect tour guide, PocketGuide also provides users with the ability to create photos, videos, and audio notes that can be compiled into a 3D video keepsake that can be shared with friends and family. See our recent story on PocketGuide here.
• Puntalo – Achtung baby! Berlin, Germany based Puntalo keeps an eye on your little ones while you can’t. Puntalo provides users with an email or SMS notification if one of your little monsters wanders off into no-no territory. In addition to being the ultimate nanny-in-the-sky, Puntalo also offers users phone and table peace of mind, providing recover of, or a complete remote data wipe of a lost phone.
• mySugr – Vienna, Austria based mySugr is taking on a big problem through technology, chronic disease. The team is working on a mobile health app that seeks to address behavioral change by way of combining games, friends, and data. mySugr is primarily focused on diabetes, but in doing so, they’re also addressing prime issues in the pharma and medtech industry.
• Quote Roller – Split between San Francisco (marketing and business development) and Minsk, Belarus (development), Quote Roller seeks to revolutionize the way contracts, proposals, and agreements are created and exchanged via the cloud. Quote Roller does away with the traditional printing, signing, and scanning of documents with both free and paid subscriptions plans. The firm is currently working on a tool that will usher in the use of tablets in lieu of traditional paper documents.

Clearly, a wide range of services and technology are on display at the Startup Week event, and choosing a winner from this group should prove to be a worthy challenge.