Rafe Needleman, CNET
Before the DemoFall start-up conference kicked off, I wrote a “What to watch” story covering what I thought would be the hot products at the show. As usual, I identified a few of the interesting companies, missed some others, and misidentified some that I thought would be hot but weren’t. Now that the show is over and I’ve spent time with almost all the products introduced there, I’ve picked out my top winning products, companies, and concepts. I paid no attention to the wisdom of the crowds nor to the official Demo God awards handed out at the show. In my mind, perhaps uniquely, these were the five most interesting Demo launches:
Emo Labs has invented a way to send high-quality sound through a clear, flat panel that can be place on top of a flat-screen TV or a computer monitor. The demo rocked and the business is straightforward: Sell technology licenses to Sony, Panasonic, Apple, etc. Great demo, great tech, great business. Read more.
The most disruptive business was Cortera, which I called “dullest of Demo” in my writeup on Tuesday. This company does credit ratings for business. Stay awake, though: it’s a $42 billion global business dominated in the U.S. by Dun & Bradstreet. Cortera’s system is cheaper to run and makes for much less expensive reports for users. It could expand the market for credit reporting to more businesses and win a financially significant portion of the market, too.
"We've relied on Cortera for over a decade and they never stop innovating. In my mind they represent the industry's new thought leader."
"It is very gratifying when your VP of Finance comes out of his office to congratulate your team on their improved metrics. Our partnership with Cortera has really helped us to achieve these results."
