TWiST Paris Meetup Special on This Week in Startups #131

Live from the City of Lights, it's a very special TWiST Paris Meetup episode! Six stellar companies pitched the audience gathered at the Microsoft France campus, but only three were selected to go before Jason's discerning eyes. Who made the cut--and who emerged the victor? You'll have to watch to find out!


0:00-0:30 Today on This Week in Startups, we have a very special TWiST Paris meetup episode.
3:00-5:30 MailChimp ad.The newly upgraded free plan includes list management for up to 2000 subscribers.
6:30-7:45 Introducing Kirsten Winkler, organizer of TWiST Paris.
7:45-10:15 The first company to pitch is i-Dispo, a unified calendar and time management system. (Watch the pitch.)
12:00-12:45 Jason would have liked to hear a concrete example of the business model in the pitch.
12:45-13:30 What did you think of the pitch and idea, Tyler?
13:30-14:15 Well done, Ismael. Any response?
14:15-15:15 Kirsten, how were these great companies discovered?
15:15-17:00 The second company is Balloon, an event organization and management platform that allows real-time audience interaction that can be easily moderated. (Watch the pitch.)
18:00-19:45 Jason says he’s been waiting for someone to do what Balloon is doing.
19:45-20:45 If someone created something with a beautiful name that is easy to use, Jason would pay for that, and he believes Balloon is it.
20:45-21:30 Jason thinks the pricing model is very affordable and loves the idea.
21:30-22:15 Tyler: How hard would it be to make this app based instead of browser based?
22:15-22:30 How do you structure the URL?
22:30-23:00 Jason suggests also charging customers for a dedicated URL.
23:00-23:30 Tyler shares his review.
23:30-25:00 Jason suggests adding screen shots at the top of the site.
25:00-25:45 Romain, why and when did you create the product?
25:45-27:00 Jason stresses the importance of having a limited-use free version.
27:00-28:00 Tyler thinks the quality of the startups coming out of Paris are every bit as good as those coming out of the US.
28:00-30:00 Jason suggests someone in the US become an evangelist for European startups.
30:00-31:30 Le Newz is the final company presenting. Le Newz is a curation tool that scans thousands of newspapers and blogs and then arranges the most relevant articles by keyword category. (Watch the pitch.)
31:30-32:45 Can the product be shown?
32:45-33:30 Most people are getting their news by going directly to the sources they like or by watching the links come up through Facebook or Twitter.
33:30-35:00 Tyler shares his insights.
35:00-36:00 Something like Balloon is easy for people to see and play with, but it needs to move from idea to iteration.
36:00-38:45 Jason and Tyler review the pitches from the three companies.
38:45-39:30 Third place goes to Le Newz, second place is i-Dispo and first place is Balloon.
39:30-41:00 Ad for Trada, the crowdsourced marketplace for keyword writing.
41:00-42:00 Announcement of Trada contest.
42:00-43:00 Vincent Lhoste, TWiST co-organizer and French Ycombinator co-founder, says a few words.
45:00-45:30 Thank you to everyone at TWiST Paris.
46:30-47:00 Thank you to the sponsors.
47:00-48:00 Tyler gives us an update on the progress of Skweal (visit to Skweal.com).

Background on TWiST Paris
Some information on the other companies who presented but were not selected to pitch on the show.

English Attack!
www.EnglishAttack.com; @englishattack

• Edu-tainment platform that enables people to learn English with games and quizzes based on music videos, movies and online games.


• Founders: Paul Maglione & Frédéric Thibout

V4X
www.v4x.com; @v4x

• Build custom, branded, interactive and social overlays for live mobile and web video streams.


• Founder: Phillipe Collin

Equicoop
www.Equicoop.com; @equicoop

• International consulting network dedicated to sustainable finance.


• Founder: Jean Ben-Illouz

Multilingual? Translate this episode of TWiST into another language and email the transcript to translate@thisweekin.com

FOLLOW ON TWITTER

Jason: @jason
Tyler: @steepdecline
Kirsten Winkler: @kirstenwinkler
TWiST Paris: @twistparis

Comments

[Jeremy Campbell]

I'm reworking my startup pitch so this episode was very useful, thanks for producing it team TWiST! I never hear about the competition in many pitches though, and I hear all the time that an entrepreneur has to mention how his or her startup has a competitive advantage. Usually the pitch is more of a product pitch than a total startup pitch it seems, which is fine too.