We’re hosting elevator pitch competitions in the most impressive elevators around the world.

Aspiring entrepreneurs and startups will be provided a unique opportunity to pitch their businesses to investors while riding the tallest and most impressive elevators in the world. Pitches are filmed by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Ondi Timoner, and those selected will be featured in her current project, A Total Disruption, a documentary and web series about innovators and entrepreneurs who are using technology to transform our lives.

The winners of each pitch contest will be announced at the event. Their prize: free passes and paid travel to attend the International Startup Festival in Montréal,  where winners from every city will compete for the world’s best elevator pitch.

CN Tower

Kick-Off City: Toronto – JANUARY 31st, 2013

There was no better place for us to launch the Elevator World Tour than in Canada’s most impressive elevator, at the CN Tower.

Highlights of the first event: 

100 Startups got a chance to pitch to investors while riding the CN Tower elevator. Seven startups were shortlisted to present to an assembled crowd of 370 people, which then selected a winner. The shortlisted companies were (in their own words):

- Dandy Co – “It seems like everyone has an idea for a mobile app. Dandy is a launch-pad for the great ideas, and a graveyard for the bad ones.”
- SensorSuite – “SensorSuite makes it easy to connect the things in your physical world to the Internet. You can monitor, control, and automate them from anywhere.”
- InstaRadio – “Our startup is building software that lets anyone turn their cell phone into a broadcast radio station. We are doing for radio what Tumblr has done for publishing.”
- ShelfLife – “ShelfLife is the future of collecting, providing everything collectors need on one platform. We combine the best aspects of Ebay, Wikipedia and Facebook for 30M collectors in North America spending $110B+ per annum.“
- Mejuri – “Mejuri is the Threadless.com of the fine jewelry industry. Through crowdsourcing, Mejuri allows designers from all over the world to take their designs to market and allows jewelry lovers to influence which designs get manufactured.”
- Hovr.it – “HOVR.it uses image recognition to make images clickable for search, making it easy to find retailers for the items shoppers discover online.”
- Revelo Bikes – “The Revelo LIFEbike is an ultra-lightweight and compact electric bike for urban commuters. Its revolutionary design makes it extremely easy and fun to ride.”

And the winner of the CN Tower event is…

The winner, Mejuri, receives bragging rights and a free pass and paid travel to attend the International Startup Festival in Montréal (July 10-12, 2013), as well as the opportunity to compete for the world’s best elevator pitch at the 2014 edition. And who knows…maybe a second meeting with one of the many investors at the event!

Pictures from the Event:

Media Coverage:

Format of the event: 

12 judges took turns (2 judges at a time) listening to 1-minute pitches. A total of 100 pitches were done over a 2-hour period. A cocktail reception was then held at the top of the CN Tower for all. 7 short-listed Startups pitched to the whole audience, and a winner was selected by popular vote.

- Chris Arsenault, iNovia Capital
- John Ruffolo, OMERS Ventures
- Roger Wilson, BDC Ventures
- Roger Chabra, Rho Ventures
- Mark MacLeod, Real Ventures
- Jason Bailey, GrowLab
- Sunil Sharma, Extreme Startups
- Kerri Golden, JOLT Fund LP
- April Dunford, Angel Investor
- Rory Olson, Angel Investor
- Jonas Brandon, Angel Investor
- Austin Hill, Angel Investor
Guest Speakers

Aidan Nulman
Andy Nulman

We are proud to have the father and son duo of Andy Nulman (President Festivals and Television at Just For Laughs) and Aidan Nulman (Co-Founder of Winston) who will do an improvised Q&A session from different perspectives of the Startup world. A unique opportunity to hear from this very talented and always energetic family tree.

 

 

Elevator pitch video from the International Startup Festival 2012

 

 

Our Toronto Partners:

 

Elevators we have our eye on for 2013:

Sears Tower, Chicago

Seattle Space Needle, Seattle

Empire State Building, New York City

Tapei 101, Taiwan

Eiffel Tower, Paris

Hammetschwand Lift, Burgenstock, Switzerland

Burj Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

 

Nominate your Elevator

To nominate your city for a stop on the Elevator World Tour, just explain which elevator we should come to and why.