Six among 2,000: Some start-ups to watch at Web Summit
Posted: Mon 2nd Nov 2015
As our head of content Dan Martin joins the thousands of people heading to Web Summit, he looks at the start-ups he'll be judging during the event's pitching competition.
As events go, Web Summit is absolutely huge.
It began in 2010 as a business run from a Dublin sitting room that attracted 400 attendees. Fast forward to 2015 and 42,000 people are heading to the Irish capital this week to listen to hundreds speakers on 21 stages. Among them are some of the superstars of tech including the founders of Instagram and Kickstarter. Exhibiting at the event will be 2,141 start-ups, all hoping to meet an investor with millions of Euros in their back pocket.
I've never been to the summit before and I'm looking forward to experiencing it, even though I can only manage one day out of the three it runs for.
Trying to pick out the top start-ups to meet on such a big list is pretty hard so I've let Web Summit do it for me. I'm one of the first round judges in the PITCH competition which sees 200 shortlisted start-ups competing to be crowned the best. I'll be judging six companies from around the world on Tuesday.
On paper they all look pretty good. What do you think?
eyeread (Canada)
"Revolutionising how children learn to read with the world's first affordable literacy accelerator that uses Artificial Intelligence on ebooks. eyeread allows parents to see how their children read as they master various books helps teachers develop personalised strategies for children who are having trouble reading."
Arduino (USA)
"Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for anyone making interactive projects. Arduino senses the environment by receiving inputs from many sensors, and affects its surroundings by controlling lights and motors."
Fluxo (Austria)
"The world's smartest lamp. Painting on your phone moves the light in any direction to perfectly illuminate your room."
JobVibe (Australia)
"A mobile app to get real-time feedback from your team and solve issues together. Get feedback exactly when you need it, on the topics that are most important to you and your team."
"oolipo revolutionises the way authors release stories and engage with fans. Soak up the story one bit at a time. The plot thickens, as stunning images, video and audio punctuate your journey."
HummingbirdShare ** (USA)**
"HummingbirdShare is a multimedia knowledge base, designed to capture and access the expertise in your company. Helping professionals to share what they know, easily, securely across teams - on any device, anytime, anywhere."
It should be a fascinating session. If you're at Web Summit, I'll be judging at 12.15pm on PITCH stage two so do come and say hello.
I'll also be tweeting and Periscope throughout my Web Summit adventure. Follow @Dan_Martin and @e_nation on Twitter and e_nation on Periscope.
Dublin, here I come!
You might also like…
