Orpyx wins A100 One To Watch 2011 at Startup Calgary Launch Party
Wicked awesome Startup Calgary Launch party last night. About 350 people filled the Roderick Mah Centre at Mount Royal. Great networking and buzz; it's a continued validation that our tech scene is both exploding in both quantity and quality.
Festivities got under way around 5:00. Nine companies presented to a select crowd of about 50 V.I.P.'s (C100, A100 and Investors) : Opryx, Minigroup, Hubblr, Kudos, Vision Player, New Panda, Transithub, Community Point, and Core Connect.
The three companies selected to pitch in front of the full crowd, who had filled the hall by about 7:30, were Orpyx, Kudos, and Community Point.
The competition was intense with about $60,000 in prizes up for grabs.
Drum roll please.
The "A100 One To Watch 2011" award went to Dr. Breanne Everett, CEO of Opryx, who also grabbed the "Tecterra Award 2011" Congratulations Breanne and team! Breanne is shown in the top picture holding her funky award with A100 presenter (and iNovia Capital partner) Shawn Abbott.
The list of all winners:
- A100 ‘One to Watch’ Award: Orpyx
- AcceleratorYYC Award 2011: "Most Boot-Strapped Startup" Sojo
- CapitalRoad Award 2011, "Startup Most Likely to Raise a VC Round": eThor
- TRLabs Award 2011, "Most Potential for Commercialization of an ICT": Hollow Earth Media
- TECTERRA Award 2011, "Best Geo-Technology Startup": Orpyx
- Innovate Calgary Award 2011, "Startup Just Prepping Product to Go To Market": Community Point
- PricewaterhouseCoopers Award 2011, "Startup Most Likely to Raise an Angel Round": Hubblr
A shout out to the award makers … I was told they had the contents of 2 laptops and 2 desktops as motherboards and such adorned them. Geeky Shiek, indeed.
The evening wasn't over after the awards -- there was tremendous energy in the room which didn't thin out until about 9:45; and the after-party continued at Union Station in Marda Loop with about 30 die-hards (myself included ... this is when the best conversations can happen! :)
Congrats to all the winners and competitors, to the event co-ordinators who staged yet another excellent event, and just generally to the whole community for turning out and sharing our passion!
