Last week was the first application dinner for our “Startup Engine” crowd to help startups get investment. Yes, we know, there really is nothing we can’t do over dinner!

We hosted the dinner in the private room in Piccolino in the City. The startups each had 1 minute to deliver their elevator pitch followed by 5 minutes of Q&A led by our expert judges. The judges had the tough job of selecting the 6 startups considered the ‘best investment opportunity’. In the next round, the qualifying startups will be asked to give a longer presentation before facing more detailed questioning from a larger panel of venture capitalists and industry professionals. The winning startup will secure a meeting with a top investment firm, Oxford Capital.

We decided to start hosting this series of dinners to provide startups with an opportunity to practice their pitches and face open questioning from investors, industry experts & their peers. Based on our own experiences with TableCrowd, we knew this would be a really beneficial process for them. The feedback we have had from those that took part has been really positive, so we intend to repeat the format.

Our expert judges included serial entrepreneur, Peter Gelardi who has decades of experience under his belt with launching new businesses, Medhi Ksikes whose background is investment management and corporate finance and Jason Hesse, specialist tech journalist from Tech City News. Through firm but fair questions, they quickly extracted the key information about each company and gave their views, feedback and suggestions.

Introducing the startups…

Emma Watkinson – SilkFred – The online destination for emerging fashion designers. Provide tools and resources for emerging designers to grow their business online. www.silkfred.com

Amy Wang – Looking to launch a socially conscious fashion brand featuring accessories from women’s cooperatives in Morocco, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Carole Seignovert / Bernard Magri – Kiddosparty – An online platform for parents to organise their kids’ birthday parties.  www.signup.kiddosparty.com/

Damien Allison – SiteMorph – A tech start up that helps web sites grow using marketing, engagement and conversion optimisation ideas. www.sitemorph.net/

Jon Prove – Ginicam – A new interactive broadcasting technology that is not flash based and uses very little bandwidth. People can buy and sell services and digital media in real-time globally. www.ginicam.com/

Maya Traykova – The Swaproom – An online community swap market place. www.theswaproom.com/

Jo Sanchz – Leverme – Helps SMEs publish invite-only referral campaigns for free. www.lever.me/

Kevin Quincey – City Beach London – Developing the UK’s largest all weather beach. www.citybeachlondon.com/

Doug Haines – The London School of Attraction – London based training company which helps men and women develop the confidence to meet the opposite sex. www.lsattraction.com

Tom Kim – A project focussing on renewable energy in Korea.

Marco Ottolini – Styloola – Social fashion startup. www.styloola.com/

Brigitte Maarbach – MBA student – Planning to set up a business for design of houses and buildings.

We’re looking forward to the final on Wednesday night (27th March). Good luck to the qualifying startups! And, if you are interested in hearing when the next investor dinner is taking place, be sure to join our  “Startup Engine” crowd for notifications.