This week, we wrapped up the last of three Demo Days in 3 different cities. Hundreds of investors, press, and techies-at-large laughed, tweeted, analyzed, and pulled out their checkbooks as the 27 companies of our Spring 2012 Accelerator Program unveiled what they’ve been working on.

The 1st Demo day was hosted at 500 Annual Partner Microsoft’s campus in Mountain View.  The companies kept their pitches short, sweet, engaging, and smooth. The audience roared with laughter as the startups delivered clever lines and, at least for 1 startup, compared their traction to being “more viral than syphilis”.

Our 2nd Demo Day was hosted at Zynga’s spiffy new HQ in San Francisco. This time we had the musical talents of Hella Good to add some spice to the evening. Dave McClure made a big announcement introducing Women Investors Now (WIN) , challenging women to become angels and commit to investing in at least 3 startups at a minimum of $5,000 each over the next year. We received a lot of support for WIN from both men and women alike. The pitches continued and indeed proved to be, like the band, hella good.

#500Strong! Picture taken by Kevin Warnock Photography

Only a few days after the festivities in SF, all our companies jumped on a plane and flew out to the Big Apple for the final Demo Day at the New York Institute of Technology Auditorium. Once again, the companies ROCKED their pitches and went out with a BANG. A sweet ending to our Demo Days!

http://www.chefuturo.it/2012/07/5-startup-che-avremmo-dovuto-fare-noi-italiani/ (in Italian)