Flashpoint Reactions

The first demo day for the companies participating in the Flashpoint accelerator program came and earlier this week without incident. Crammed into the GTRI auditorium were a veritable who’s who of the Atlanta technology scene. Kinetic Ventures‘ Nelson Chu, Noro-Moseley Partner‘s Alan Taetle, Atlanta Technology Angels‘ Mike Eckert, Silicon Valley Bank‘s Dale Kirkland and local entrepreneur David Cummings whose group of companies could be its own marketing and sales technology cluster, were all in attendance to hear six-minute pitches from this first class.

Since both The Atlanta Business Chronicle and Cumming’s post provided comprehensive summaries of the companies and the Flashpoint program, this editor will share her impressions of the presentations as well as the reactions to the pitches by some of the attendees.

With information security being a core competency in Atlanta, it was no surprise that information security start-ups Social Fortress and Pindrop Security were the “belles of the ball.”

Here’s what Glenn McGonnigle of TechOperators had to say about Adam Ghetti and Social Fortress, “trusting data in a public cloud is a problem. This is the closest thing to a perfect solution that I’ve seen.” But in true “show me, don’t tell me” fashion, McGonnigle cracked a smile and added, “if it works.”

Ghetti impressed Kirkland with his “infectious enthusiasm and passion” for the business and won over Danny Davis, partner at 151 Locust Fund and CEO of Proving Ground. Davis saw Ghetti present at the CapVenture graduation event and thought Ghetti’s Flashpoint presentation offered a “better value proposition and story.”

The other two companies that stood out were David Moeller of CodeGuard and Tim Dorr of Billfold.

Moeller is the king of pitch competitions having taken home the top prize at CapVenture and the popular vote at Venture Atlanta. In a move that Linnea Geiss of Arcapita called “ballsy,” Moeller went with a live demonstration of his company’s product.The gamble won him admirers among the live tweeting audience:

And perhaps even a customer.

Billfold’s Tim Dorr took the direct approach. The ATDC entrepreneur in residence took his own advice to heart about ending with the ask. Not only did he deliver a succinct but engaging presentation, he did it with tongue firmly in cheek.

Dorr’s inclusion of his company’s supposed bank routing number and account information in the last slide of his presentation gave the crowd quite a chuckle and lit up the tweet stream. We wonder if it’ll result in the requisite dollars. Stay tuned.

Becoming pitch perfect is certainly one of the goals of the Flashpoint accelerator program but ultimately, it’s about enabling more fundable local companies. And by that measure, the program is definitely experiencing early success. This is good for the start-up community and great for Atlanta.

We wish all the companies the very best as they travel to Union Square Ventures in New York City next week and Andreessen Horowitz in Menlo Park the week after for demo days at each of these firms.

Kudos to Merrick Furst who originally conceived of the program, the Flashpoint staff, mentors and other volunteers who made it happen.