The second batch of companies in the 13-week Iron Yard Accelerator pitched their games, services and tools last week during Grok, a three-day idea-sharing event for Web designers and developers. Short sessions with experts were intermingled with kickball and scavenger hunts, and networking time for 215 attendees.
Blue paper tinsel hung from the ceilings at the Forge, the Iron Yard’s space in the former Windstream building at Main and Washington streets. Walls were decorated with prints of custom cartoon characters that captured the crowd well: mostly male, often bearded and mustachioed, style-conscious and laid-back.
Speakers included Iron Yard co-founder Matthew Smith, a nationally renowned designer, and Charles Adler, co-founder of Kickstarter.
The crowd was notably different from last year’s demo at Zen, about a mile down the street. There were fewer business suits. Chandler Van De Water of Tavern delivered his pitch for an app for beer connoisseurs wearing a T-shirt and shorts, but no shoes. He let a group of funders sitting on one end of the room know that the presentation was tailored “for my design community.”
For the most part, however, the jocular atmosphere gave way to seriousness as companies had precious few minutes to sell themselves and their products, asking investors for amounts from $250,000 to $800,000. Technical difficulties and visible bouts of nervousness underscored the gravity of the event for the entrepreneurs.
The biggest ask came from Jesse Wonder Clark of Kydaemos, who gave a polished pitch on an app that allows users to bet money as they compete in real-time games. “Freemium is a con,” he said, referring to the business model where products are given for free but advanced features cost a premium. “There’s got to be a better way to make good games and make good money.”
The youngest engineer ever hired by Intel, 19-year-old Darren Liu pitched Haptix, software that could turn any surface into a touchscreen controller. He listed Intel and Siemens as potential partners, and said there were already talks with CU-ICAR to design interfaces to control entertainment inside automobiles.
The pitch session ended with a pitch by Jeremiah Dew of Gamemasters, who listed several successes with apps that create real-world games for organizations and informal groups. Immediately after that, everyone was invited to play one of their games, which would lead them on a scavenger hunt around downtown before dinner.
On the second day, participants took time out for a kickball game at Fluor Field.
Grok is also an opportunity for the Iron Yard to pitch Greenville to the creative young people that make up the tech entrepreneur culture. Now in its third year, the event has grown from about 20 locals to more than 200 participants, half from out of town.
Rebecca White, a self-employed designer from Jackson, Miss., said she has visited Greenville several times and plans to relocate here in the coming months, following some former coworkers.
“The major attraction is the incredible community of highly skilled, passionate designers and developers,” White said.
Today is the application deadline for the Digital Health Startups accelerator that begins July 15 in Spartanburg, which aims to capitalize on the growing healthcare presence in that city.
