This year, Guidewire Group is a partner with LeWeb’11 to produce the Startup Competition at the Paris conference, December 7 – 9.  Eligible companies will have less than $1M in financing and will introduce their latest product during the conference. To date, more than 500 startups have used our new G/SCORE(tm)software platform to apply for one of the coveted 16 finalist spots at the event.

Thanks to those entrepreneurs who have already completed their applications. They have thrown their hats in the ring to compete with an impressive group of startups and we wish all of them good luck!

From the applications we receive by the deadline, 36 companies will invited to compete in the next round of judging. Companies will submit a short video pitch that tells us why your company is among the most innovative in the SoLoMo space. We’ll contact contestants by October 31 with the results of the first round of judging. If you’re in the next round, we’ll share details about the video competition.

All applicants to the LeWeb Startup Competition have early, complimentary access to Guidewire Group’s G/SCORE Analytics application to benchmark their businesses and track their progress against other startups. By keeping the G/SCORE profile up to date, your business’s progress and success will also be visible to investors, corporate partners and M&A executives who use the G/SCORE Analytics application to find and track innovative startups.

For those who have not yet completed a LeWeb Startup Competition application, please see the instructions below for logging in to complete a profile and  G/SCORE self-assessment. It only takes a few minutes to complete the process. Applications are due by October 15, 2011 and we can only consider completed applications.

Steps For Completing Self-Assessment:
Once you’ve logged into the application (http://leweb.guidewiregroup.net), there are three tabs at the top: FOLLOW, DISCOVER, and SCORE. Click the SCORE tab. You should then see a drop down that contains all the companies you’ve created and are following. Select your company in that drop down if it’s not already selected. Click Begin Assessment to complete self assessment.

Steps for Requesting Certified Assessment:
After Completing a Self Assessment, you will be taken back to the main SCORE page. This page will now show the date which you created the assessment and some options to perform on that assessment, such as Publish or Request. Click the Request link to request a certified assessment. You will then be taken to a form. Provide a URL to a video if you so choose. Make some notes for the reviewer also if you so choose. Lastly, click submit. Then you’re done.

A year ago, Guidewire Group embarked on an ambitious plan to seek out the Innovate!100, a global list of the 100 startups demonstrating high potential and higher velocity as they build their businesses from idea to sustainability.   Today, after more than 30 Pitch Slam events in more than 30 cities on five continents, we’re proud to announce the Innovate!100 for 2010.

It’s been an incredible year and an incredible honor to meet, assess, and in some cases work closely with so many innovative companies, founded and run by an extraordinary group of entrepreneurs.  At each  Pitch Slam, startups presented their businesses to panels of judges who used our G/SCORE assessment methodology to evaluate how far each company was along seven key vectors of business growth.  The G/SCORE measures a company along seven factors: overall concept, market opportunity, competitive risk, product development, business development, team, and business model.  In each factor, our judges compare the company to key milestones that represent achievement in business building.

Using the G/SCORE data, combined with other information about the companies, our judges ranked the startups at each event.  The top company at each Pitch Slam event automatically made the Innovate!100 List.  Then, we selected the top-scoring companies, overall, and then the top five companies in each of our growth stage tiers (prototype, beta, product complete, revenue).   Finally, this week, 16 companies honed their pitches at the Guidewire Group Studio G workshop in Zaragoza, Spain.  Yesterday, the companies competed in the final Pitch Slam at the Innovate!Summit 2010, received a G/SCORE benchmark assessment, and answered questions before our panel of judges.  By the end of the day, one company- Anboto Group – took the top spot upon the Innovate!100 List for 2010.

We wish to thank all the companies that applied and pitched at an Innovate! event this year, as well as the many judges and attendees who worked to make the event a success.  We’re also grateful for the sponsors that made this quest possible, including Microsoft BizSpark, SWIFT, Atlassian, Microsoft Bing and Microsoft Azure, Cisco, O2 Litmus, PayPal,  and Quickstart Global, along with our long-time partner, Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation.

On behalf of all those entrepreneurs, sponsors, and supporters, we’re delighted to announce this year’s Innovate!100 List.

The Innovate!100 2010

Rank	Company	Country
1	Anboto Group	Spain
2	Artesian Solutions	United Kingdom
3	RedOxygen	Australia
4	NUMENUS GmbH	Germany
5	ividence	France / United States
6	myERP.com	United States
7	Relay Foods	United States
8	Intelia Consultores	Spain
9	SocialSmack	United States
10	NUITEQ	Sweden
11	FonYou	Spain
12	PetsMD	United States
13	Now!Innovations	Estonia
14	iAsset	Australia
15	Gumiyo.com	United States
16	Homing.com	Spain
17	Anneysen.com	Turkey
18	Sopima Oy	Finland
19	iletken / SocialWire	Turkey
20	FanFeedr	United States
21	iFacturas	Norway / Spain
22	LUMA International	Netherlands
23	Spring Gully Foods	Australia
24	Innovalley	Spain / United States
25	me & goji	United States
26	Evanscorp	Australia
27	Skimlinks	United Kingdom
28	Optify	United States
29	Canatu	Finland
30	Smart Logic	United Kingdom
31	Waze	Israel
32	Scense B.V.	Netherlands
33	TicTacDo	France
34	SentiMetrix	Italy
35	Smart Grains	France
36	TellMeWhere	France
37	Myworksearch Ltd	United Kingdom
38	Siondo	United Kingdom
39	Kobojo	France
40	Paycheck Manager	United States
41	3ScaleNetworks	Spain
42	CloudShare	United States
43	EventElephant	Ireland
44	Inference Communication	Australia
45	Over The Top Games	Spain
46	Sonru.com	Ireland
47	Werkadoo	United States
48	Apica	Sweden
49	Ulteo	France
50	Taleee	United States
51	Leetchi	France
52	EcoVadis	France
53	TaxiPal	Estonia
54	Novapost	France
55	Stupeflix	France
56	Cellictica Ltd.	Finland
57	Hiive Systems	Australia
58	Green Revolution Cooling	United States
59	Austrailian Survey Research	Australia
60	Conceptic	Israel
61	Kinamik	United States
62	Sentinel	Spain
63	Valt.X	United States
64	Sparkeo	Israel
65	The Gifts Project	Israel
66	Hypios	France
67	BehavioSec	Sweden
68	Wozaik	France
69	Pantea	Italy
70	Pervactive	Italy
71	Spreaker	Italy
72	Kade System	Turkey
73	MyLawsuit.com	United States
74	Shutl	United Kingdom
75	InternMatch	United States
76	DriveK	Italy
77	SocialAnnex	Spain
78	TaskPoint	United States
79	Tracks & Fields GmbH	Germany
80	Tribe of Noise	Netherlands
81	Vanios	Spain
82	WOT Services Ltd.	Finland
83	Bookioo	Spain
84	Edicy	Estonia
85	Whereoscope	United States
86	Aviator Controls	Australia
87	Fits.me	Estonia
88	Tinypay.me	Netherlands
89	Jasondb	Australia
90	iris2iris BV	Netherlands
91	AdTaily	United Kingdom
92	Threeplicate	Italy
93	Tryane	France
94	Sordu.com	Turkey
95	IDU Biometrics	Israel
96	Nutiteq	Estonia
97	GrabCAD	Estonia
98	Getitkeepit.com	Ireland
99	OrderMapper	United States
100	Groupvine	United States

Last week, Guidewire Group  kicked off the Innovate 2010 program with Pitch Slam events in Zaragoza and Madrid.  In all, 22 companies presented their businesses in our fast-paced, 5-minute format designed to quickly tease out a company’s market opportunity, unique differentiation, and execution against plans.  As company’s pitch the business, our esteemed judges evaluate the startups using our G/Score methodology.

To refresh your memory, the G/Score is an assessment of a company’s business opportunity and market traction at a point in time. The seven-factor score looks at overall concept, market opportunity and challenges, product and business execution, team and business model.  The G/Score is not intended to be a predictor of success or to be a substitute for diligence.  It is a gauge of potential and performance.

Since introducing the G/Score (first privately to hundreds of executives and entrepreneurs and then publicly earlier this year), we’ve been asked a lot of questions, as you would expect, about the efficacy of the G/Score.  Is it “accurate”?  Does it successfully predict winners?  And perhaps the most incredulous one: How can you judge a company in just 5 minutes?!

In a world as fraught with execution risk, hard work and luck, it’s difficult to know what “accurate” might mean in the context of a startup business.  The G/Score isn’t a measure like weight or height that can be compared to an absolute scale.  Startups have no absolute scale.  But the G/Score does accurately assesses where a company is today.  At what stage is product development?  How complete is the team?

Does this accurate assessment predict success? I’d argue that the G/Score is an assessment of potential.  Continued execution on the business, smart reaction to the market, and a commitment to product excellent drive success.

Most importantly, it turns out, The G/Score provides a common language and a foundation for constructive conversations between entrepreneurs and the marketplace.  And that’s what makes the G/Score a valuable tool in assessing companies in 5-minute Pitch Slams or in hour-long one-on-one meetings.

Every day, startups submit their businesses to quick judgment from investors, customers, potential partners.  They do it at events like the Innovate!2010 Pitch Slams, at conferences, competitions, and meetups.  Often, the judging criteria is little more than a gut feeling and a wet finger int he air.

What we’ve found in just a very short time is that the G/Score gives a judging panel – and ultimately with the people who are in a position to invest, partner, and otherwise support these young companies – a standardized way of thinking about a company that supplements instincts and directs the conversation to a productive and constructive dialog about the business.

Over the course of two Pitch Slam events in Spain, the quality of comments and questions put forward by the judges and audience was substantive to the company’s position and traction in the market.  Gone were the pot shots and gut feelings that are so often center stage when “experts” sit in public judgment of startups, and along with it the defensiveness that entrepreneurs often project when they’re under the spotlight of such random scrutiny.

In short, the G/Score worked to change the tenor of the dialog and every startup, whether top scoring or newly rising, could take away valuable feedback and constructive advice from the judging panel.

As you might expect, not every company has perfect pitch.  So another key learning from the evening is that entrepreneurs must continually fine-tune their company presentations, and if they tune to the G/Score, we believe they will be communicating more effectively the potential and execution excellence of their companies.

Guidewire Group strives to make the G/Score methodology and criteria transparent so that entrepreneurs understand clearly how they are being assessed.  We provide training videos that describe the score and provide advice on how to present a company for the purpose of being scored. Use these materials to hone your own business presentation, whether you’re pitching for a G/Score or selling your first products.

By tuning into the G/Score, you are stating clearly and as objectively (at least as objectively as a thing as tenuous as a startup can be) what your business is all about, how you will win the market, your commitment to technology and business execution, and the team that will drive your success.

Over the past month, we’ve been rolling out the G/Score framework with partners, training G/Score assessors, and introducing entrepreneurs to the concept of a standardized, objective, transparent assessment methodology.  The feedback from literally hundreds of conversations has been gratifying and tremendously helpful as we work to make the G/Score a useful and prescriptive tool for entrepreneurs and a valuable vetting mechanism for large organizations seeking to work more effectively with early stage companies.

And then, we got this question on our blog:

“Has the G/Score framework been evaluated against actual outcomes to determine how well it predicts the success/failure of early stage companies?”

When we parse the question, it’s clear that there are really two question on the table:

1. “Can we use the G/Score to pick winners?” – Where ‘winner’ is a company that will receive venture funding and go on to generate outsized investor returns.
2. “Can we rely on the G/Score to accurately assess a startup’s strengths and weaknesses?”

Candidly, the answer to the first question is “no.”

But then, that not what the G/Score is meant to do. The G/Score is a measure of a company’s potential and traction at a point in time. While a score might note significant market opportunity and a smart product offering, it is execution over time that drives to a successful outcome.

The G/Score’s seven factors, each rated on a four-point scale, work in combination to articulate a company’s achievement, potential and viability. No factor is weighted more heavily than another in the total scale. That weighting is left largely up to those who incorporate the G/Score into their own evaluations.

For example, a company seeking to acquire a technology may weight delivery of product to market more highly than business model, knowing that upon acquisition the technology will be integrated into the acquirer’s selling and pricing models. A serial startup executive may weight market opportunity most heavily, while looking for low-scoring teams who need the executive’s execution expertise.

By contrast, the answer to the second question is an enthusiastic, though anecdotal, “yes!” The G/Score measures where a company is today, against a clearly articulated ladder of achievement. And our observations of the more than 20,000 companies we’ve interviewed over the last 20 years indicates that if a company scores low and does nothing to address its weaknesses, it will most likely fail. But if a company works to address its weaknesses and improve its score, it dramatically increases its chance of not just surviving, but thriving.

The point is this: the G/Score doesn’t serve as a substitute for your own diligence, instincts or gap-fit analysis. It’s not intended identify a “good chemistry” between startup and investor, partner, or customer. It is, at its core, a uniform filter, a tool, that allows the individuals and organizations that work with startups to do that work more efficiently by helping them to quickly hone in on companies that meet their specific performance criteria.

We describe the G/Score as prescriptive for the entrepreneur because never has it been more clear what a company can do to move the needle on execution.  By clearly articulating the achievement required to score at each level in the four-point scale, the entrepreneur can immediately see the work ahead of him to improve his G/Score and advance his business.

Along the way, the G/Score had another interesting affect on the startup ecosystem. Because it normalizes the way we look at startup businesses and provides a common language to talk about companies, it changes the dialog in the market. Already we’ve found that the conversation between a company and an assessor hones in on issues that matter to the execution and performance of a business. Hard to articulate gut instincts – and worse, feedback as public performance – are replaced by serious questions about business execution and market potential. An entrepreneur’s defensiveness is replaced by desire for constructive feedback. The conversation is qualitatively more useful to everyone.

Every organization working with startups is likely to have a set of guidelines to help them evaluate early stage companies and match them to their specific interests. The G/Score is another tool in that arsenal, one that is open, transparent, and objective, and designed to be as helpful to the entrepreneur as to the company doing the evaluation.

Hey folks – just a quick note on the G/Score. Chris and Mike recorded a video walkthrough of the philosophy and methodology behind it, so if you’re looking for more info, this is a great place to start.

And while you’re at it, check out this one too, on optimizing your pitch for a G/Score.

Last November, Guidewire Group had the opportunity to spend three amazing days with eight outstanding entrepreneurs of the 2009 PIPELINE program, as we delivered an intensive workshop of business communication.  Ours was the last of four modules in the year-long business acceleration program to provide high-potential young companies with business skills training, mentorship, and peer review and support.

During our time with the PIPELINE teams, we got to learn a lot about the program from PIPELINE CEO Joni Cobb.   Our window into the program was brief but clear: the program combines working on the business with working in the business.  The entrepreneurs are given the guidance to lead their companies more effectively and prodded the hit critical milestones precisely.  Among the many non-profit and government-funded startup accelerators we’ve studied, PIPELINE is a model to emulate.

Far away from the buzz and energy of any recognized tech center, the companies of the PIPELINE program have achieved a measure of experience and success that would set them apart and above the crowded startup landscapes around the U.S.

And did I mention, PIPELINE is in Kansas.  Not exactly the hotbed of innovation, some would say. Yet these eight companies are, simply put, inspiring.  For the most part, they’ve built their businesses with a scrappy mixture of hard work, optimism, and an exacting focus on their customers’ needs.  Few of the eight have taken professional venture capital, yet all of them present smart investment opportunity.

On Thursday night, one of them will be crowned Innovator of the Year. By any measure, it’s going to be a tough competition.  Guidewire Group wishes each of these companies best of luck at the award ceremony on Thursday, and we wish them every success in the future. (UPDATE: Farms Tech CEO Jason Tatge was named Innovator of the Year at the PIPELINE gala celebration on January 21. – ed.)

As part of our workshop, we provided a G/Score assessment for each company.  Here are the eight companies:
Emerge Medical Solutions, LLC
Lenexa, Kansas
Jerry Calovich, C0-founder

The company  has created a new and clinically proven approach to improve the quality of healthcare delivered to patients with cardiovascular disease.  Emerge Medical Solutions G/Score

EcoFit Lighting
Lenexa, Kansas
Cason Coplin, President

EcoFit Lighting designs, manufactures and markets high-output, energy-efficient LED streetlights that can be retro fit with existing utility lighting fixtures.  EcoFit Lighting G/Score.

iSi Recycling Services
Wichita, Kansas
Gary Mason, Founder & CEO

A spin out of iSi Environmental Services, this company has developed a process for creating active carbon from carbon fiber manufacturing waste.  iSi Recycling Services G/Score

Robotzone, LLC
Winfield, Kansas
Brian Pettey, Founder & CEO

Robotzone designs and develops robots and robotic components for commercial, industrial and military applications, and has developed a new robotic camera platform for the film and video industry. Robotzone G/Score

AthletixNation, Inc.
Lenexa, Kansas
Davyeon Ross,  Founder & CEO

The company  has acquired a multi-year license to publish and distribute Division I college sports video content to media properties and sports Internet sites via its multimedia content and advertising platform.  AthletixNation G/Score

BRKZ Corp.
Overland Park, KS
Chris Routh President & CEO
BRKZ creates game changing internet properties, such as   Hurox.com, a groundbreaking online social marketplace allowing talented individuals to market and sell their digitally created online content to the masses, and FreshlyBranded.com, a marketing services marketplace. FreshlyBranded.com G/Score

Orbis BioSciences
Kansas City, Kansas
Maria Stecklein, VP Business Development

Orbis Biosciences offers clients a new way to create microparticles that gives unprecedented control of release rate with any material. Orbis BioSciences G/Score

Farms Technology, LLC
Lenexa, Kansas
Jason Tatge, CEO

Based on its Dynamic Pricing Platform and Pioneer MarketPoint, the company makes commodity trading more efficient by offering automated marketing tools to farmers and grain buyers. Farms Technology G/Score

Founded originally to develop project management software, New Zealand-based Aptimize discovered the need for Web page delivery acceleration when its own product was painfully unresponsive.  The Aptimize optimization scheme turns “chatty pages into chunky pages” by concatenating images and JavaScript, recompiling and compressing them on the fly. In one example with its own product, Aptimize reduced load time from 30 seconds to 4.  Consistently, server calls are reduced by 50% or more.  Sharepoint sites see reduced load times by 33 – 75%, according to the company.

Launched from New Zealand in late 2008, the product is best deployed by content-management-driven sites such as e-commerce and catalog sites.  The company has 100 customers including Raytheon, Fidelity, and Microsoft.com.  The company is currently working to expand its footprint in the U.S. and  the U.K.

Aptimize has protected its IP in New Zealand and has filed for expedited examination  in the U.S. and Canada. The company believes that several companies – including StrangeLoop Networks, Argon Networks, and FasterWeb, may be infringing on its patent.

With large companies like Akamai beating the drum for faster page loads, Aptimize comes to the U.S. with good timing and a smart product to seize leadership in this emerging market.

Aptimize Scorecard

G/Score Explained

Welcome to the inaugural G/Score™ post here on The Guidewire. As we mentioned earlier in the week, the G/Score is essentially Guidewire Group’s brain, codified. We’ve taken 20 years and 20,000 startup interviews and molded them into a transparent, quantifiable rating system for young companies. Our scorecards make it easy for startups to identify areas of strength and weakness, and for investors and assessors to establish much-needed evaluation benchmarks.

In time, we hope the G/Score will be adopted by any organization charged with assessing and monitoring startup potential.  For our part, we’ll post scorecards on the companies we meet directly and which we think represent leadership and/or disruption in key market sectors.

As you might imagine, these posted scorecards are merely the tip of the iceberg for the G/Score. We plan to integrate it into many different aspects of our services for startups. We’ll be working with partners around the world, initially through the search for the 100 most promising global startups, to make G/Score the global standard for evaluating the business viability of startups.

But at the simplest level, we want to use it to tell our readers about the companies we’re meeting. So without further ado, you’ll find below an anecdotal summary of Kampyle, a startup working in feedback analytics, and its accompanying scorecard. We’d love to hear your comments, questions, and suggestions on the scorecard’s design, so ping us – info [at] guidewiregroup.com – and let us know what you think.

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Kampyle specializes in feedback analytics, giving brands deeper insight into specific behaviors of its users. It is a solid company with a respectable user base, a sharp team, and a well-built product that is needed by virtually every online brand today.

Feedback analytics, however, can be a bit dry; when your stock-in-trade is charts and graphs, you’re not going to be running ads during the Superbowl. Kampyle needs to recognize and adjust, if only slightly, for that fact. Though data is about as hot a topic as one can find in 2010, the company needs a better handle on presenting the large amount of stats it’s throwing at its customers. It’s simply too much for a person to realistically consume.

Beyond that, the company seems to be firing on all cylinders. It has impressive customer wins and partnerships, with a vast potential market ahead of it.  In short, Kampyle transforms numbers into usable, readable, employable analytics – and that’s something today’s major brands will pay a lot for.

**Update – Kampyle has alerted me to a lower-cost package for “startups, non-profits and personal blogs” that includes limited features for $49/month.
See their site for more info.

Kampyle Scorecard January 2010