 I'm Michael Butler, I'm with NCT Ventures here in town, we're a local Columbus, Ohio based and focused venture capital firm working in the technology B2B, B2C space. We were fortunate enough to be involved with both versions of 10X at this point. I work very closely with the accepted team, ultimately from there, from an introduction with the accepted team, we ultimately made an investment in the accepted team and I'm actually on their board and an investor and an advisor work pretty closely with them on a weekly basis and they're having great success so far. The other team that we work closely with was the eFuneral team out of the Cleveland area. We're very closely with Mike Belsito and Brian Chacon. They were very hard working individuals, used the office space quite a bit so I had quite a bit of opportunity to spend time with them and see them, gave them some ideas along the way, helped respond to some of the things they were doing. They were very diligent folks, probably one of the most hard-working teams, at least from what I could say, in the first group. In the second session we've worked with a couple of teams so far. The SideNow group that's developed a fantastic Facebook app for social debating is a team that we spent probably the most time with. The entrepreneur is a very engaging young man and his team member is fantastic as well. We spent some time with them, advising them, you know, different ways to think about how to distribute the program, which is really the task that is now in front of them, how the 10X is out, how to gain some distribution, some foothold, how to think about the revenue model going forward and we expect great things from them in the future. The ZoopShop folks, the folks that came in from Singapore, a fantastic group who's developed just a simple, very easy-to-use e-commerce capability can be added to a lot of sites by a relative novice that appears. The other group that we worked with is the Rooftop Down organization that's involved in home management and really possession management as it relates to registries, warranties, maintenance, upkeep, things like that. NCT's focus is really very Columbus-based, very Columbus-specific and we've chosen that for a reason. We think there's huge opportunity here in Columbus and we're very excited about 10X, the first two versions or two sessions of it, but we're very excited about where this can go in the future, how that ecosystem continues to grow and build. You know, as many sessions as probably we could hold, they'd be able to accommodate with a number of great startups that are coming out of creativity, out of Ohio State, OSU Hospital, Battelle, other great technology centers here in Columbus. Our fund is specifically focused on trying to bring some venture capital to some of those initiatives. We think it's a great place to be. We think our money will be well invested and well returned to our investors by really sticking close to home. We like to have a very hands-on approach working with the firms that we work with and ultimately, we hope, take them to a positive exit. My name is Brooke Paul. I'm a serial entrepreneur that's located in Columbus, Ohio, moved here about five years ago, currently working with Founders Factory. Founders Factory is a local angel fund, a business accelerator and product design and development team, and we bring together both capital business expertise and product capability to accelerate the growth of startup companies in the central Ohio region. Been involved in 10X for the last year and a half. As a mentor and advisor, I've worked with several of the teams. During 10X 1, back in summer of 11, I worked with Flare Code, which is a group of journalism students that had a really great idea around aggregating and presenting content on a cross-platform mechanism across the internet. They did very well during the program, managed to raise a quarter million dollars in capital and are currently active and working hard in Athens, Ohio. I also had the opportunity to work with the accepted team. They have a great platform for video management of applications to higher education and currently working with them on their technology platform, as well as their sales initiatives. They're growing rapidly and have been invested in by Founders Factory, NCT Ventures, as well as Tech Columbus here locally. Looking ahead for the next group of startups, it looks like each class seems to keep getting better. We get great energetic people that have fantastic ideas. And the bigger challenge is actually going through the selection process and trying to narrow it down to 10 best ideas. And I think Columbus is a great place to have a technology startup because it's full of great resources and a wonderful community that wants to support not just in the central Ohio region, but across the whole state. We have great early stage capital access capabilities with a number of angel funds and follow-on pre-seed funds to help fuel the business. And we have lots of great resources due to the proximity to Ohio State, University of Cincinnati, Ohio University, CCAD, Franklin University. The list goes on and on. Lots of young talent to really help fuel growth in a capital efficient and down home Midwestern startup location. I think it's an amazing time to be part of the startup community in Ohio and general and central Ohio specifically because there are all these resources that are coming together to really accelerate businesses, identify the best business opportunities, get them funded, get their products built and get them into market. My name is Mike Blackwell. I'm the CEO and founder of Groova, which is a super rapid prototyping and web design firm where people can create prototypes, our goals to help them create prototypes that inspire people. I've really been involved in the startup community within the last five years. I've worked with the Ohio Tech Angel Fund. I'm a member of actually the Ohio Tech Angel Fund. I'm a former entrepreneur in residence at Tech Columbus. I was the founder and CEO of Vacation View. And I am currently the founder and CEO at Groova. And previously was the former CEO and creator of ShareThis, which is the little green button that you see on sort of web on a million websites. So I worked with various 10x groups. We created a tool so that the 10x group could rapidly prototype a lot of their products. Some of the companies and ended up using our tool. We codenamed the tool Frank and Wear. Some of the companies that ended up using that tool were MorphCard. I think SideNow actually used it. I actually then met with just regarding their product plans and storyboards. Other companies like ZoopShop and Tac and MorphCard and LifeScribe. We spent most of our time really with a few companies, ZoopShop in particular, helping them really determine some of their product plans. ZoopShop makes a syndicable store and then make it possible for that to be syndicated to lots of other locations and platforms like Facebook, Tumblr, and some other places as well. I'm looking to see companies that have great product vision. Really people who can execute on a vision. I'm looking for companies also that can help grow the startup community in Columbus and the Midwest. And companies that take direction well from mentors. And finally companies that are people who are really hungry to succeed. We're really interested, we're big fans of the Wayne Startup approach. And it's really extraordinary how you can create value with less, especially in the Midwest, which is a good segue into why Columbus. It's what you can do with Columbus that you can't do in other parts of the country. That is exceptional. In Columbus, you know, $20,000 goes a long way to create really a valuable product. We have seen people create extraordinary value for in very short amount of time and very little money. And the reason why is because there is an exceptional set of mentors who are very approachable in the in the community, as well as the university. And there's several universities are, you know, where there's a strong base of learning that is going on. And that feed the community. So we're seeing some substantial momentum in the startup community. We're getting better access to funding, which really gives a higher probability to get to the next level of funding in the Midwest. When your product begins to create value, and you want to move to the next level or increase your marketing. Hi, I'm Victor Thorn. I'm one of the mentors for the 10x program. My background involves entrepreneurship and investing. I started a business about 11 years ago, software company focused on supply chain tools to solve some inefficiencies in the food service system, and ended up starting the business bootstrapped liquidated every asset I had, raised friends and family money, then launched the business, raised real capital, got venture capital funds involved. And luckily, we were fortunate enough to have a technology that was adopted and sold the business to some institutional investors about six years after we started it. I'm here in Columbus now working with the Ohio Tech Angel funds, Tech Columbus, the Columbus partnership, Columbus 2020. The list goes on. I also have an investment firm of my own called Broadline Capital that's invested in technology companies in China, the West Coast, the East Coast and Ohio. There's a beautiful ecosystem here in Columbus that really generates a high level of energy around startups and early stage technology. There are tremendous resources that are provided by the state of Ohio, the city of Columbus and the suburbs around central Ohio. The standard of living here is very attractive for young startups that have very little cash to work with, which can go a lot farther here than than many other places that have vibrant communities like this. You also look at the companies here like Cardinal Health, Scott's Miracle Grow, Nationwide, Financial and American Electric Power, Limited Brands. We're a very diverse community with companies whose executives are engaged with what we're doing. They're very open to being a part of the ecosystem and providing support and becoming early customers and beta customers of our technology. I got involved with 10X because I could feel the need to bring together all of these resources into one system that really brings the environment together where we have a fluid motion. We have the ideas brought by entrepreneurs and people with great ideas and we have the financial support from both the state and private and public private partnership investors. Then we have the experienced entrepreneurs and resources that can fill management teams and really efficiently get great ideas turned into fast growing companies. I worked with a company called Accepted. Accepted, Don and Derek were recent college grads that were ready to go and high energy, great idea. Our partners in the community surrounded them with resources and some experienced management support and technical support and they're often running and Tech Columbus, which is one of the firms that I'm connected with, provided initial funding support along with one of our partners in the community that really rolled up their sleeves. One of the companies in the current round, One Exchange Street, actually moved here from Chicago. I worked closely with them to help refine their plan and they've collected over a million dollars in direct and in kind investment from strategic investors and financial investors. Tech Columbus has also committed. I'm very happy that I'll be continuing on with that team as a member of their board of directors and as an advisor. But when you look at every one of these companies, there there are connections and resources and partnerships that are that are made informed that prior to the existence of an accelerator program like this would be very, very difficult to put together. And the fact that we're a very open and collaborative environment here in Columbus makes it a perfect place to start a business and get this initial support from an accelerator program like the 10X.