DFJ Gotham $250k Live

I'm here at the DFJ East Venture Challenge and with 250K on the line, everyone is buzzing. Some of the greatest business leaders in New York City here from Morgan Stanley bankers to Fox Interactive executives to venture capitalists to top Ivy League moguls. I just grabbed some gourmet food served on Verterra plates, which are plates that biodegrade in approximately 50 days! (The average for a paper plate is about 200 years) Verterra was last year's competition winner and the founder just informed me that the company is doing very well, currently serving mostly private event planners, but looking to establish larger distribution deals.

This year's entrants are JetEye, Ecovolve, Solixia, SocialBomb, Widetronix, Scrimple, Yan Engines, Intrabid, Tropical Health, Electro-Epi and Click Diagnostics. I actually missed the first few presentations, which means that I will only be reporting on the final five teams. According to Mark Davis of DFJ Gotham, all of the initial presentations were very impressive and the deliberation was tough.

The DFJ Venture folks are still upstairs deliberating--as soon as they come back and the finalists start presenting again I'll be back on.