I grabbed my slice of pizza and then sat down to an evening’s worth of pitches hosted by Ultra Light Startups at Microsoft’s swanky digs in midtown Manhattan.
Founded by Graham Lawlor, Ultra Light creates “an ecosystem for startups to become successful with a supportive network and best practices from founders who have done it before.”
So besides hosting interesting speakers— I heard Union Square Venture’s Albert Wenger last month—ULS’s main event is a monthly pitch-athon conducted in front of distinguished judges.
Last night, startup advice and counsel was dispensed by Brad Harrison (Point Capital Partner), Gil Beyda (Genacast Ventures), Ed Reitler (ARC Angel Fund), and Michael Yavonditte (ff Ventures, founder and CEO of Hashable).
I’ve been to enough of these to make the stunning observation that pitches begin to sound, you know, vaguely similar.
But one pitch that felt fresh and original, though the idea of using email to connect with consumers is now practically medieval, is called Daily Secret.
Athens-based (that’s Greece, not Georgia) Daily Secret has come up with the idea that you want a daily email that offers some interesting and unusual information about the city you live in.
I agree with their simple but seductive business concept. After I heard the pitch, I immediately craved it. I will also admit now, for the first time, to being a fan of Secrets of New York. For those not in the know or live outside the NCY area, it’s the TV show on the NYC Media channel that is always combing the city’s historic records for fascinating tidbits to present to viewers.
Back to Daily Secret. Phaedra Choursous, one of the two co-founders, said Daily Secrets was first started as a “good karma” project during the middle of the Greek crisis to “remind Athenians what they love about their city.”
After reaching 500,000 subscribers, the founders decided they had something. There are now Daily Secrets in six other cities—Berlin, Istanbul, Mexico City, Shanghai, Lima, and San Francisco. Paris and Barcelona will be coming online soon. And there’s plans to launch a new city each month. Wisely, there’s a strong focus in bringing this model to booming emerging cities in South America and East Asia.
One judge in particular was ready to write a check.
But who’s writing the content? Daily Secret has been able to find well-informed city dwellers with full-time gigs (journalists, TV producers, architects, editors) who love to write about their hometowns.
Sure, there’s competition from the likes of Daily Candy and lots of other online sites in this genre, as well as traditional media players. The judges and I suspect most of the audience felt that if they can keep the content focused and interesting, they would succeed.
And down the road I think they’ll have to professionalize the staff, paying real editors and writers to do this work. You know my rant: pay the writer!
Daily Secret deservedly garnered a first place last night based on the audience vote. Bonne chance, Daily Secret.
And a shoutout to the under-appreciated Automato, which helps small and medium sized business automate data entry and other workflows. I’ll have more on them next week. And also Medicasting, which broadcasts medical procedures to remote doctors and diagnosticians.
Related articles
- Albert Wenger’s Age of Disruption (technoverseblog.com)
- Daily Secret
- Automato
- Medicasting
- Ultra Light Startups
