Splash LA MAy 2013 finalist BiteMe enables and socializes the predictive power in everyone to gamify the endless stream of daily life events. BiteMe is part of a massive horizontal opportunity. Here's a video of Barry Vial presenting at Vator Splash LA.
Among the judges were Ethan Applen (Warner Bros' Media Camp List), David Carter (Amplify.LA), Noah Doyle (Javelin Venture Partners), Neal Hansch (Rustic Canyon Partners), Paul Lee (Lightbank), Peter Lee (Baroda Ventures), Michael Montgomery (Montgomery & Co.), Matthew Mazzeo (Lowercase Capital), Tom McGovern (Idealab), Dave Fink (Science), Erik Rannala (MuckerLab), Heidi Roizen (DFJ), Rick Smith (Crosscut Ventures), David Travers (Rustic Canyon Partners), Pete Vlastelica (Fox Sports Digital), Sharon Wienbar (ScaleVP), Michelle Wroan (KPMG), Martin J. Waters (Wilson Sonsini).
Even though success is not defined by how much money a company has raised, past Vator winners, such as Thumbtack, Getable, Grovo, Astrid, Udemy, and Geeklist have gone on to raise millions of dollars collectively from venerable VCs, soon after presenting.
Here's some other testimonials:
"The process of inviting everyone one we knew to vote for us, even before the event, was a fantastic way to build support for our company. Then presenting at Vator Splash was a blast. The short presentation style ensured the audience was engaged and the follow-up questions from the judges were on-point and constructive. At Vator Splash, I made great connections with a number of investors and had a number of follow-up meetings. We were able to raise our last round entirely from investors who discovered us from the publicity we generated from Vator Splash," said Jon Paris, CEO and founder of Astrid.
"Working with Vator, and Bambi, is a pleasure. She's really passionate about uniting great ideas with the right people. We actually tied for first in last years Vator Splash SF and as a direct result raised $150,000 from an investor who saw us pitch. TEEC Angels approached us right at the event and invested soon thereafter. Reuben Katz, CEO and founder of Geeklist.
"Vator has acted as a launchpad for my startup in terms of awareness and exposure. As a winner of a Vator competition, my startup enjoyed early traction and buzz. Vator has kept my business relevant in the minds of investors, entrepreneurs and potential employees. I've made many invaluable connections to the investor and entrepreneur community." Tim Hyer, founder and CEO, Getable.
"DogVacay.com won Vator Splash LA in June 2012. The competition allowed us an opportunity to meet and pitch against some of the great Los Angeles startups and further foster our entrepreneurial community. There was such a positive energy with so many great minds providing insightful feedback throughout the night. Two paws up, Vator!" Aaron Hirschhorn, founder & Top Dog, Dog Vacay
"Events like Vator Splash are critical for startups to generate awareness. We were a top 10 finalist for Splash LA. It provided us with an amazing opportunity to network and gain exposure to a whole community of investors and VCs. Soon after, we raised $3M as a result of the momentum/exposure from the event and the platform in general," Peter Vogel, founder and CEO, Plink.
Woman of many skills: Database System Engineer; SplashX event producer; Author of Startup Teams
All author postsFertility treatments are more relevant than ever; here are a few startups pioneering new solutions
Read more...
Anna Vod
After a trial in select locations, Elon Musk is expanding its fee to more X users
Read more...
Anna Vod
The tools include content such as educational videos, recipes, and daily nutrition tips
Read more...
Steven Loeb
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
The disruptive things we do in B2B are demonstrable Please see video and White Paper "The Long Tail of Betting" US Patent 7,792,723 (plus Intl IP). Now we want to apply our our radical IP to gaming, and in particular, to social betting. This a potential $20B market http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/27/a-winning-wager-experts-see-a-20b-market-for-gambling-in-games/
"BiteMe" is a multi-player creative-social-betting-video mobile platform (did you get all that?). With just a dollar* in your bank, you can create and offer any number of wildly creative bets that are interesting to you and broadcast them worldwide via 6-second microvideo (Vine) taken from your smartphone. The more interesting your video and bet offer "bait", the more viewers you get who may vote up your video and take your bet offer "bite". You can multicast 10 or 100 bet offers of completely different events "baits", all at the same time at different odds YOU set (not the house), ALL without risking more than one single bet! Why fish with just one pole in one pond at a time? Potential players and viewers can up vote your creative 6-second pitch (trolls get voted out) and you gain possible nano-celebrity and virtual money (real money to follow) resulting from those votes. You also get acclaim and virtual money for judging the videos and outcomes of the bets of others. It is fun and safe to play as creatively and wildly as desired. Because there is no opportunity cost impediment to play, other players will join in with their own creativity and, sometimes they will "shark" your bet idea, by competing against you and offering your original bet but with better odds to lure interested players away (but only you get the up votes for your originality though). For the first time, players control the odds, and rate each other based on how creative, successful or controversial each other are, all in a fully transparent way. What are you a brianiac on? Socialize and monetize that knowledge by expressing your predictions on politics, pop-culture, sports , or anything that interests you. BiteMe appeals to both ends of the player spectrum. The hardcore gambler, solely incentivized by financial gain, benefits from the visibility of supply & demand of odds as well as the ability to create bets not hostable by conventinal venues "the house" (that pesky opportunity cost thing again). The casual player, who isn't necessarily incentivized financially but who is definitely incentivized socially, will enjoy the rewards of expression, discoverability and upvotes.
*Betting is real-money where legal and soft-money in other jurisdictions. And those gates are coming down!
Here's how you do it:
Let's say you're a big American Idol fan and you just know that Contestant A is going to win.
Step One: You register on BiteMe. It's free, easy and anonymous.
Step Two: You enter a few brief details about your bet offer (who, what and when) and what odds you are offering $1 to $1, $2 to $1 etc.
Step Three: On your smartphone you make your 6-second micro video promoting your bet in any entertaining way you see fit. It can be a smack down of the competition, or why you are so smart, or why your idol is so great, or anything that is entertaining which can drum up votes for your video and winnings to your coffer.
Step Four: At outcome, your virtual currency is either transfered out of or into your account. BiteMe only makes public your upvotes, win/loss ratio, judging stature and reputation on disputes. You rise or fall on how well you create and execute.
Joined Vator on
Mundane executive heavy-lifting to repeat the impression of "overnight success".
