And, here is Hoiio API, the company chosen by the people as the People’s Choice winner. This company gets $20kUSD to use at the PlugAndPlayTechCenter incubator, $200kUSD in press and media services from IDG Executive Forums, a free pass to the DEMO 2012 conference in Silicon Valley, and a whole lotta additional traffic to their website! Nice going Hoiio! This guy gave a compelling demo by himself that worked perfectly without any smoke or mirrors.

TimeGrab, a revolutionary mobile platform to engage users before, during, and after fun events. TimeGrab for iPad creates mobile, social communities for concerts and sports that provides a rich visual experience around entertaining content and related ecommerce. TimeGrab is the social timeline tool that can be personalized. In addition to providing a fun mobile environment for users, it also serves as a fan development, management, and commerce platform for the events and entertainment industry, which can be deployed as a manage service or in SaaS mode.

Applications available online, due Oct. 17, 2011

A world-class opportunity awaits U.S. college graduates with innovative ideas for a new business. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is expanding its successful Global Scholars Program to include up to 10 recent graduates from U.S. colleges and universities who will join Scholars from around the world.

During the first five years of the Global Scholars Program, Kauffman hosted students sponsored by governments and organizations from five countries representing 11 nationalities. In 2012, the expanded Program will enable selected U.S. Scholars to learn and network with an international group of fellow aspiring entrepreneurs.

To learn more, read the news release here.

The Global Scholars Program is an amazing opportunity for entrepreneurs to get immersed in their business. After indoctrination and several months at the headquarters in Kansas City, the team of people head to Silicon Valley to rub shoulders with locals. They even get to intern at local companies for several weeks to really get a sense for what it is like to work at a company like Google, Yahoo, Cisco, and many others.

I had the distinct pleasure of coaching the last two Global Scholars classes from 2009 and 2010. They are really fun people who are thirsty for knowledge that can help them run and succeed in their companies. I am looking forward to working with the new class of people early next year! Apply now, if you want to be considered for this amazing program!

In their search, they usually find themselves at places like VCTaskforce or PlugandPlayTechCenter pitching for exactly 2 minutes to a panel of investor judges. It’s a little like Dancing With The Stars in that each investor holds up a card to vote on the company they just heard. The winner, like in the TV program, gets the prize. And, the prize is usually a plague, trophy, or even a cash award!

It’s humbling to me that over that last few weeks, I have had the distinct honor of working with three companies who all achieved high honors with their presentations. Take a look:

Yesterday, at gigaOm Structure 2011, there were 11 companies in the cloud arena that went up on stage for 4 minutes to pitch to an audience of about 1,000. At the end of the presentation, the venture investors handed out a score of 1-10 followed by one investor giving feedback. dotCloud hired me a few weeks before to coach them for the event.

The results were unexpected. While Solomon did really well on stage, there was one other company that seemed to come very close to dotCloud in the judges scores. But, in the end, dotCloud took home the top prize out of the 11 companies AND they took home the People’s Choice award too! The voting was from the audience and people who were watching on-line. It was sooooooooooooo fun to see the bar graph growing when the voting starting coming in. dotCloud’s votes were at least 10x everyone else on stage.

Well done Solomon! And, thank you Patrick McGovern for finding me since we met at DEMO many years ago.

On June 20, at the Rocketspace incubator in San Francisco, 12 young start-ups were given a chance to pitch to 3 angels and 2 venture capital investors hosted by Keiretsu Forum. Guess how much time each presenter had? You got it. They had 2 minutes! The results?

I started working with Andreas Wilkens at MediaFunnel for about 2 weeks before the event. Once he was invited to pitch, we spent numerous hours rehearsing the pitch so that it sounded natural and engaging. Andreas won first place and he is also an IBM Smartcamp finalist headed to N.Y.C. to battle it out with 3 other companies!

To see what Mediafunnel is doing with IBM Smartcamp, check out Andreas’ 1 minute pitch. The intent of this short pitch is to find people who will “Like” the idea and vote for him. If you use social media in business, you need to hear what MediaFunnel can do for you. And, if you like what you see, please send Andreas and his team a Like vote!

On June 13, at the VCTaskforce, 12 companies went up in front of a panel of angel investors for their 2 minute pitch followed by 4 minutes of Q&A followed by a few more minutes of non-defensible feedback from each investor. The results?

Jostein Svendsen, CEO of Creaza, won first place! Jostein is the man in the light blue shirt at the front of the room. He has an amazing product that lets people edit video and render video in the cloud. It’s fun and easy to learn how to use. Unfortunately, they are still in a private beta and it requires a special code to get in and play around. They should be generally available soon. Way to go Jostein!

On June 9, 2011, PlugandPlayTechCenter held an investor expo where 32 companies were given 2 minutes on stage to pitch their company opportunity to an audience of about 500 people with 50 or so investor VIP judges. Jostein Svendsen, the CEO of Creaza came out on top!

I arrived at the Getaround offices in San Francisco on the Friday before the event. Sam Zaid, co-founder (the tallest dude on the right side of the check) and I went over the script and made all sorts of changes in order to make the demo even more memorable. On Sunday, Jessica Scorpio, co-founder (holding the check) and I used Skype to rehearse the script while they sat in their N.Y.C. hotel. They worked extra hours to be sure that the demo was indelibly inscribed in their minds and that it was delivered with passion and over-the-top enthusiasm. And, that’s just what they did!

One of the best parts of the demo was when the camera shifted to the back of the room where a Tesla was sitting. As part of their demo, they used the iPhone to unlock the Tesla to demonstrate how someone would actually get into a car they rent through Getaround. It was a magical moment for the team at Getaround and the audience apparently loved what they saw.

Getaround was chosen as one of the two audience choice winners among 32 presenting companies and came out as the top company in the event. They walked away with a check for $50,000.

My response to this is always the same because PlugandPlayTechCenter is an example where 30 companies were each given exactly 2 minutes to pitch their company to an audience of about 400 people, many of which were investors. When the clock hit zero, the presenter was escorted off the stage. This event takes place every quarter during the year and it’s only one example of an organization that gives the presenter under 2 minutes to present their opportunity.

Take a look at the three companies that were selected as the top presenters at the PlugandPlayTechCenter International Expo. Two to the three top winners used The Demo Coach model for How To Pitch To Investors In Under 2-Minutes.

In summary, here’s what I coached TapMap and Super Compare to do well before the event:

1-Clearly write out your 2-minute pitch word for word, including the closing remarks and the ask. In the opening remarks, be sure an say or do something that will hook or grab your audience so they will want to really listen to you.

2-Fine tune the script and try it out on some real people including your PR firm, if you have one. Continue to fine tune.

3-Memorize it word for word. It’s one of the only ways you will get it out in under 2 minutes. Trust me. Give yourself 10-15 minutes of rehearsal per day and you’ll have it down in 5-10 days. It should take the average person about 2-3 hours to memorize a 2 minute pitch not including the rehearsals where you fine tune the “how” the 2 minutes is delivered. It’s not about the words alone. It’s more about how you deliver those words to the audience.

4-Rehearse the memorized 2 minutes until it becomes second nature and you have put the passion and enthusiasm behind the words. Don’t just try and blast out as many words as possible. Make every word count and be sure to emphasize words and phrases that you want people to really hang onto.

When you reach the point where your 2-minute pitch is coming from the head and the heart, you are ready to sign up for an opportunity to give your 2-minute investor pitch.

Good luck. Break a leg, as we say in show business. And, remember that investors are people just like you and me. They want to do business with people they respect and like. Be sure and remember that the 2-minute pitch is really just the first step to getting to know your potential investor. It just opens the door, if done well.

In addition, with 20 days between now and your time on stage, there is still time to get your review session with me. Just go to my on-line calendar to schedule your (no charge) review session at: https://my.timedriver.com/HGQ3R

I am currently accepting clients for DEMOSpring 2011. If you want an edge on stage, you need to hire a coach, especially someone who has been on the DEMO stage. If you don’t hire me, you should get your PR firm or other outsiders to help you. This is not a typical demo situation. It’s a 6 minute demo that must be tightly scripted and rehearsed until it sounds natural.

Barracuda FX has been named as the Best High Growth Company at InterTradeIreland’s 8th annual All-island Seedcorn Business Competition, the largest business competition on the island which took place in Belfast on 24th November. Dublin-based Barracuda FX has won the overall prize of €100,000 and Epona Biotech Ltd. triumphed as the Best Emerging Company on the island, taking home a cash prize of €50,000. In both cases, we primarily worked remotely using Skype, screen sharing, and webcams. Everyone was able to join in to join in the rehearsals, even when in remote locations on the globe.

Congratulations to Kieran Fitzpatrick and his team at Barracuda FX and to Dr. Heinrich Anhold at Epona Biotech. I am confident that both companies will tell you remote presentation coaching worked for them!