This morning, 13 startups pitched their ideas for over 500 investors at the third TechStars NYC demo day. This batch had a 0.8 percent acceptance rate, and the cream of the crop got the chance to participate in 3 months of intensive mentorship.
Since TechStars announced its Spring 2012 class in March, a few things have changed. One startup, StockTouch, did not participate in the program, explains TechStars NYC managing director David Tisch (we reached out to StockTouch for further comment). Markover, a platform for creative professionals to get feedback and discuss their projects, has broadened to become PopTip: a way for any company to use Twitter to get feedback and track responses.
“We work [with] the companies to help them iterate their thinking. They are exposed to a ton of mentors who provide feedback, and sometimes feedback leads companies to different paths,” says Tisch. “Part of the process of doing a startup.”
Finally, Droptype has become Marquee, although the idea remains fairly similar: Marquee lets you edit webpages right from the web browser, with a basic toolbar for changing layout, text, and colors. One nice touch is that you can try editing their homepage; here’s my brighter, funkier version:
“[Droptype] was a great name, but sounded very utilitarian and didn’t really apply to the kind of experience we were trying to convey,” explains cofounder Alex Cabrera. “It also didn’t help that Dropbox won’t (understandably) give you access to their API with the word ‘drop’ in your name, so that’s that.”
Applications for TechStars Seattle (due tomorrow) and Boston (due July 1) are open now; apply here.
