Judges from First Round Capital, Golden Seeds, Facebook, Acumen, and more Choose 2018 Winners

Katherine Olives

We always say to our startups: our job is to make the judges job difficult. This quote sums up the time each track chair and mentor puts into priming every one of our startups for Demo Day and the Final Pitch.

Every year, the competition gets closer and the judges deliberations get more complicated. This year, weve gathered a powerhouse team to evaluate the 2018 Cohort. On Demo Day, investors, entrepreneurs, educators, public officials, and experts in a variety of fields met with each semi-finalist and carefully decided who would move on to the Final Pitch. They included, listed by track:

The Kaylie Prize:

  1. Joe Barba, Director of Student Entrepreneurship & Engineering Professor, CCNY
  2. Katey Metzroth, Director, 2M Cities & Lead, Futureworks Incubator
  3. Maggie Tishman, Director, Bronx Innovation Factory

The Zahn Social Impact Prize:

  1. Kyungsun Chung, Founder, Root Impact
  2. Stephanie Fernandez, Education Assistant Policy Analyst, NYCs Mayors Office
  3. Engjell Latollari, Programs Coordinator, Echoing Green

The Standard Chartered Women+Tech4NYC Prize:

  1. Amy Chen, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, NYC Media Lab
  2. Camilla Uden, Treasurer, Zoetis
  3. Matthew Washington, Deputy Borough President, Office of the Manhattan Borough President

The Zahn Technology Prize:

  1. Arber Ruci, Entrepreneur in Residence, NSFs I-Corps
  2. Sandy Wollman, Co-Founder, Westchester Angels
  3. Kim Yarnell, Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook

 

On Thursday, the finalist teams will meet more investors from First Round Capital, Golden Seeds, Republic.co, and Accelerate NY Seed Fund; experts from the Moxie Foundation, Standard Chartered Bank, Acumen, ELab, and the Cordes Foundation; as well as educators from CCNY, founders, and experts in law.

Together, theyll consider how developed each teams product/service is, their pathway to long-term sustainability, and their go-to-market strategy. There are also specific requirements for each of the four categories, so weve assembled four separate panels of experts€“one for each track€“to evaluate the 18 teams.

The Kaylie Prize was developed and sponsored by CCNY Alum Harvey Kaylie, Founder of Mini-Circuits. This category celebrates all things hardware, and qualified startups are building physical products that may or may not include a connected (smart) technology. This year, we chose judges with a vast knowledge of engineering. They include:

The Zahn Social Impact Prize is developed and sponsored by the Moxie Foundation. This category acts as a catalyst for the spread of social entrepreneurship on campus, and encourages students to develop a global perspective on impact. Startups in this category were challenged to build ventures with a sustainable revenue model, whose primary objective is social change or environmental stewardship. They may pursue either a nonprofit or for-profit model, and the judges are advisors and investors for social enterprises.

The Standard Chartered Women + Tech4NYC Prize is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank as part of the Women in Technology Incubator at the Zahn Center. This year, the category celebrates the role of women in building Silicon Alley. Startups were challenged to leverage technology to address challenges in New York City. By nature, many of the startups in this category have a social impact mission at their core, and may consider nonprofit status in the future. This years panel of judges is dedicated to keeping their city on the cutting edge, with expertise in investments, finance, and crowdfunding.

The Zahn Technology Prize is also sponsored by the Moxie Foundation. Startups in this category were challenged to develop ventures that use technology to solve problems otherwise untouched. Their products include transformative new apps, web platforms, database tools, or e-commerce sites. This year, we chose judges with a vast knowledge of the latest technologies. Some work directly in the tech field, while others have been long-time investors of technology ventures. They include:


Together, these judges will decide the fate of 18 startup teams, and decide the two finalists in each category€“who will then pitch again on Thursday, May 3rd for a chance at first and second place prizes totaling $150,000.

On Thursday, well also learn which startups were our audiences choices on Monday, and who will join us this summer in our Accelerator. Follow the action live on Twitter at @ZahnCenterNYC

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