Bug Blog

Level 3 sponsored the pitch night to give startups a unique way to connect with corporations. Where startups usually pitch to investors, the Level 3 pitch night brought startups together with potential customers. The event took place in the dedicated meeting space sponsored by Versent.

The event brought together the founders of Foresight, Timelio, Upload Once, Jesla Labs and Covercard to pitch, along with Bugwolf, before a panel consisting of Rampersand co-founder Paul Naphtali, Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga and Transurban General Manager of Tech Partnerships and Innovation David Hanus. All startups received five-thousand US dollars in Amazon web services and the winner also claimed five thousand dollars in service from app developers Hyperapps, two-thousand dollars in cash and a two hour coaching session from Unlockd co-founder Chris Kerrisk.

The event showed how startups could present their services in an engaging and educational way. Dave Slutzkin, general manager at Level 3 said, “This is a unique opportunity. While many pitch nights provide investment to winners on the night, we are hoping our outcome is one step beyond investment in that we are providing real customers for the startups.”

The purpose of this event was to help startups solidify their business model by pitching directly to potential customers. It opens up the communication lines between startups and the larger corporations that could benefit from their services.

Didier Elzinga complemented Ash Conway and runner up Foresight. He told StartupSmart that, “They understood the beginning, middle and the end, they kind of took everybody on a journey and they were very confident in the way they presented that and that’s hard.”

Events like this help build a new level of coordination across the IT industry and this won’t be the last B2B pitching night sponsored by Level 3.