On the format:
* Despite all the niggles below - this was an interesting event and experiment. I'm looking forward to what they do in the future.
* A surprising number of companies didn't have a demo or a live site with anything more than a sign up form. The nReduce folk have since tweeted that they were going to have demo videos but ran out of time, they'll be around next month.
* I didn't like the format very much. You could jump between companies live rather than seeing them in sequence, but didn't get the context for what had happened already so I imagine there were lots of repeat questions... and you missed the context when you came into the conversation late. I'd be interested whether they later release the feeds so folk can see the stuff they missed. A linear presentation would be better IMHO.
* Technical problems with the live feed in a couple of times. Also seemed to be some technical problems with some companies seeing questions from audience.
* Bugs in question voting/promotion system seemed to cause some questions to be skipped (ironically the ones that people had voted up as interesting :-)
* Question ordering based on network-reach of asker/promoters seemed over-complex.
On the presentations:
* Lack of demos kinda sucked.
* Felt like a lot of the people needed more coaching on how to pitch and how to answer questions. Lots of N minute answers that should have been 30s answers. Lots of fuzzy answers that should have been crystal clear.
On the companies (basically copy and pasted from my post-demoday #bluntreview tweets :-)
* .@ApptivGames Intrigued to see if this attracts folk who don't have intrinsic motivation for exercise - like me [pitch = using exercise tracking to get virtual points for games online - http://www.apptivgames.com/ ]
* Edocr - Problem and solution not clear to me. You have customers so something there - needs clarity [pitch = something to do with documents and social media http://www.edocr.com/]
* Rentini - You have a working product! Result :) Don't find the USP terribly convincing though [pitch = holiday home finding via activities http://www.rentini.com/]
* .@getsuavely - You sound really creepy. Possibly coz I'm old and think you meet people in bars goshdarnit :-) [pitch = dating via social peer recommendation http://www.suave.ly/ - whole "wingman" and "validated single" language was real turn off for me... but I'm an old geezer who hasn't been single for 17 odd years now]
* Cloudable.me - The product pitch made sense. Sounds like something I might use. Want demo, not sign up form. [pitch = collect what your social media folk tweet/like and organise that shit for you http://cloudable.me - unfortunately while I was there the founders don't appear to have been able to see their questions]
* .@Meldium - Clear pitch, pain point & solution. Last two companies I worked at would pay for your product. Win! [pitch == centralised management/admin of saas users/services for your organisation. I have experienced this pain in spades. I would buy this at any company with more than six people in it.]
* .@dwelleeinc - Like idea, but pitch lacks clarity. Want a demo not a sign up form. [pitch == crowd sourced finding of apartments... but still not sure how exactly it works dwellee.com]
I didn't have time to go ask the last company, Recollect, any annoying questions :-)