Bend Venture Conference, the annual gathering of Angels, VCs, and startups in Southern Oregon, continues to remain one of the largest startup pitch competitions on the West Coast — and an annual destination event for many of the folks in the industry. So it’s always nice to see Early Stage startups getting the chance to present in front of the esteemed audience.
The Early Stage segment of BVC has become a multi-stage process, where a group of semi-finalists compete for crowd votes in order to take the stage. That part of the process is now complete. So we now know who’s going be pitching their companies in the Tower Theatre, this year:
- Finnegan the Dragon (Hillsboro, OR) – The first preschool curriculum and mobile gaming system that targets language development for better learning outcomes.
- FiOR Innovations (Bend, OR) – A robust construction management software for the architecture, engineering and construction industries.
- Polaris (Bend, OR) – An AI-powered site reliability tool that detects outages and incidents in web applications in real-time.
- Revino Inc. (Newberg, OR) – A wine bottle reclamation and sanitation service that collects, washes and refills wine bottles in Oregon and beyond.
- Symphony Markets (Bend, OR) – A streamlined, SEC compliant exchange for IP owners to list shares of their music while providing investors exposure to a stable, culturally relevant asset class.
Not familiar with BVC?
Each fall hundreds of entrepreneurs and investors from around the country descend on beautiful Bend, Oregon for a two-day celebration of Central Oregon’s entrepreneurial community. Now in its 20th year, BVC is the longest standing angel investment conference in the Pacific Northwest and has served as a hub for entrepreneurship in the region. Since its inception, the BVC LLC has awarded over $12 million in investments and the conference serves as a catalyst for additional funding for the portfolio of companies that participate.
As Central Oregon’s flagship entrepreneurship event, BVC attracts over 500 attendees, 50 prominent investors and 65 companies to this celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation each year. With separate categories for growth, impact and early-stage companies, BVC aims to garner as much exposure for participating companies as possible. Throughout the conference attendees hear company pitches, break away for networking events and learn from aspiring entrepreneurs and industry thought leaders.
For more information, visit Bend Venture Conference.
[Full disclosure: Finnegan the Dragon is a PIE alum. I am the cofounder and general manager of PIE.]
