Creative Startups on Display

The Albuquerque Journal recently wrote about the Creative Startup Accelerator "demo day". Here is an excerpt from the original which can be found here.

Local, national and international startup companies showed their wares to an enthusiastic crowd of about 150 people Wednesday night at the latest “demo day” for graduates of Albuquerque’s Creative Startups business accelerator.

The accelerator, which helps aspiring entrepreneurs in the creative fields learn new ways to build and grow their companies, will graduate its latest cohort of nine firms this week.

At Wednesday’s event, held at the Kosmos artist studio and gallery near Downtown, the graduates took turns on stage for two-minute presentations about their companies, which included firms from New Mexico, other states and as far away as Mexico and Portugal. Their products and services included an eclectic mix of high and low-tech goods, ranging from Native American crafts and all-natural beauty products to computer-created virtual environments that allow people to converse with fictional figures like Harry Potter.

The companies will be presenting again on Friday for an audience of experienced entrepreneurs and investors, which could potentially lead to funding or strategic partnerships to help some of them move forward. The presenters will compete for $50,000 in prize money, with $25,000 going to first place, $15,000 for second and $10,000 for third.