Entrepreneurs pitch their bright ideas at Le Grand Pitch, New York
The long-awaited, Le Grand Pitch, co-organized by HEC Paris Alumni Ventures, was held on Tuesday Nov. 10th at AOL’s headquarters in New York.
Formatted into an initial networking session, the pitching event itself, and an after party at a venue chosen appropriately enough, “Pardon My French”, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Le Grand Pitch unfolded with great success for the HEC Paris community.
There were ample opportunities to network with investors, startup teams, and technology executives. For HEC Paris business angels involved, potentially compelling investment opportunities and connections were made.
And then of course, there were the pitches:
- DocDelta: Chris Toudic
- Gorgias: Romain Lapeyre
- Wheeli: Jean Pierre Adechi
- Gigwax: Alexandre Seillere
- Shade.io: Emmanuel Dumont
Each company presented well but of special note for the HEC Paris community was Gorgias, founded by Romain Lapeyre, (Master in Management Grande Ecole, Class of 2015). Judges for the pitching evaluation included: Nine Point Nine Capital, Red Sea Ventures, and Two Sigma Ventures. The organizations behind Le Grand pitch were: AAGEF, French Founders, SparkLabs, HEC Ventures, ESSEC Ventures, BPI, CCE, La French Tech, La French Touch and ISAI. BPI was the official event sponsor.
Shade.io was announced as the winner of the event and will receive free co-working space at Spark Labs in addition to possible investment.
Based on the success of the event, another edition will likely be planned for next year (and maybe one in SF), which may present an additional opportunity for the HEC community.