Invent is the new Eurovision!

When you know that Australia are 1/4 to end in the top five of Eurovision it’s time to focus on something else. So I turn my attention to Northern Ireland’s finest….

The closest thing we’ve got to a man singing in a dress is Alex Kane (fair play to him for keeping his word), all he needs is the beard and we have NI’s own Conchita, may not be a good idea to order an award cake though.

Finding Data On The Invent Semis…

With tea in hand and the sun shining (like three days in a row now, Cecilia’s on annual leave surely) I went about digging around the 24 finalists. I had good intentions to sit down and methodically go through each entry of the Invent2016 semi finalists and get some data. The original plan was to manually trawl through the excellent Mattermark website and get the growth scores and other juicy numbers….. I gave up.

The simple fact of the matter is that anything early stage has to work hard on getting some searchable data out there. Whether that’s a Crunchbase listing, some sort of social media thing and a listing on Angel.co. It’s all relative and remember, Northern Ireland Startups need the one big gold mine moment where all eyes look here and see more gold to be mined. So exposure to the masses is key.

Because a lot of these companies are very early stage and prototypes it’s very difficult to get any good data on them. And as I’m so out of the loop with the startup sewing circle knowing much about these ideas is pretty much impossible. So I resort to mere guesswork…. why the heck not. It currently beats looking at odds checker and knowing Russia are basically going to win Eurovision.

My Methodology…

Do you really think I have one with a lack of data. Two words: Startup Sexy. That’s my methodology.

Nailing My Predictions To The Mast

I’m going to look at each category and with the minimum of Yorkshire/Hampshire wit and sarcasm predict the winner of each category and then have a go for the overall winner. It seems I am an idiot, I’m sure there’s easier ways to live life.

One observation and I’ve come across this before. Be careful which category you are in. I think Locate A Locum is enterprise and SpaceHop is more consumer, that might have an impact on the group winners. Just a thought….

Consumer Internet

Finalists: VenueBooker, Orca Money, E+Press and Locate A Locum

Prediction: Orca Money

Engineering

Finalists: Embed, JumPack, PetalRod and SmartVent

Prediction: Embed

Agri Science

Finalists: Copeland Spirits, Green Lizard Tech, Oran Oak and Purple Magic

Prediction: Purple Magic (Hunch on name alone)

Life and Health

Finalists: Take Ten, TILT, Kraydel and ECGeasy

Prediction: TILT

Electronics

Finalists: PacTec, PayOx, Point Energy and SnapIt

Prediction: PacTec

Enterprise Software

Finalists: Elemental, The Shield, Right Revenue and SpaceHop

Prediction: SpaceHop

The Overall Winner?

Really difficult to know as there’s nothing gut wrenchingly jumping out at me. So I’m going to hazard a guess with Orca Money with an each way on SpaceHop. Though let’s be honest I’d not risk any of my own money on a bet.

I’m too risk averse.

Best of luck to all the competitors.