Meet the Judges Who Will Choose our 2019 Grand Prize Winners

Katherine Olives

We always say to our startups: our job is to make the judges job difficult. This quote sums up the time each track chair and mentor puts into priming every one of our startups for Demo Day and the Final Pitch.

Every year, the competition gets closer and the judges deliberations get more complicated. This year, weve gathered a powerhouse team to evaluate the 2019 Cohort. On Demo Day, investors, entrepreneurs, educators, public officials, and experts in a variety of fields met with each semi-finalist and carefully decided who would move on to the Final Pitch. They included, listed by track:

 

Kaylie Hardware Prize

Zahn Social Impact Prize

  • Jen Jones, Co-Founder, Women You Should Know & Women You Should Fund
  • William Poon, Director of Strategy, Communitas America
  • Maggie Tishman, Program Director for Economic Innovation, MIT Community Innovators Lab

Standard Chartered Women+Tech4NYC Prize

Zahn Technology Prize

 

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On Thursday, the finalist teams will meet more investors from Golden Seeds, SoundBoard Venture Fund, Republic, Accelerate NY Seed Fund, and 6th Ave Capital; experts from Standard Chartered Bank, The Moxie Foundation, Acumen, NYCEDC, CapGemini, UpWardly Global,  the Cordes Foundation; as well as educators from CCNY, founders, and experts in law.

Together, theyll consider how developed each teams product/service is, their pathway to long-term sustainability, and their go-to-market strategy. There are also specific requirements for each of the four categories, so weve assembled four separate panels of experts€“one for each track€“to evaluate the 18 teams.

The Kaylie Prize was developed and sponsored by CCNY Alum Harvey Kaylie, Founder of Mini-Circuits. This category celebrates all things hardware, and qualified startups are building physical products that may or may not include a connected (smart) technology. This year, we chose judges who not only have experience investing in medtech and hardware devices, but have vast knowledge of how these devices operate! They include:

The Zahn Social Impact Prize is developed and sponsored by the Moxie Foundation. This category acts as a catalyst for the spread of social entrepreneurship on campus, and encourages students to develop a global perspective on impact. Startups in this category were challenged to build ventures with a sustainable revenue model, whose primary objective is social change or environmental stewardship. They may pursue either a nonprofit or for-profit model, and the judges are experts in economic development and non-profits & social enterprises.

The Standard Chartered Women + Tech4NYC Prize is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank as part of the Women in Technology Incubator at the Zahn Center. This year, the category celebrates the role of women in building Silicon Alley. Startups were challenged to leverage technology to address challenges in urban environments. By nature, many of the startups in this category have a social impact mission at their core, and may consider nonprofit status in the future. This years panel of judges is dedicated to keeping their city on the cutting edge, with expertise in investing, finance, and social enterprise.

The Zahn Technology Prize is also sponsored by the Moxie Foundation. Startups in this category were challenged to develop ventures that use technology to solve problems otherwise untouched. Their products include transformative new apps, web platforms, database tools, or e-commerce sites. This year, we chose judges with a vast knowledge of the latest technologies. Some work directly in the tech field, while others have been long-time investors of technology ventures. They include:

Our Final Pitch judges will decide who will walk away with grand prizes totaling $150,000. Follow the action live on Thursday, May 9th via Twitter & Instagram at @ZahnCenterNYC starting at 5:30pm.

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