Who’s a Judge? Wow! - Part 4

March 15, 2015 HATCH Peeps

HATCH pitch competition day is tomorrow! We can hardly wait to hear from all of our wonderfully talented finalists at SXSW on Monday morning. As we all get ready for the big day, read on for our final installment of our judges’ introductions, and we hope to see you all in Austin very soon!

PATRICK EGGEN, QUALCOMM

Patrick Eggen is the Investment Director and Head of the QCV Seed Program at Qualcomm Ventures, the wireless technology firm founded in 1985. Qualcomm is the second most active corporate seed investor firm in the U.S. Eggen manages 18 companies through Qualcomm, including Clicker (acquired by CBS in 2011); Starmaker, a social media platform dedicated to the music industry; and mightytext, an SMS text messaging mobile app. Prior to his time at Qualcomm, Eggen was an investment banker for Citigroup and Salomon Smith Barney. He specializes in seed stage investing and the mobile & wireless tech industry. We look forward to seeing you at the judge’s table, Patrick Eggen!

NICOLE GLAROS, TECHSTARS

As a managing partner for the startup investor firm Techstars, Nicole Glaros has led efforts in Colorado, New York and Texas to find innovative startup companies. In 2014, Glaros was named one of the 7 Most Powerful Women to Watch by Entrepreneur. She has spent over a decade in the venture capital industry, placing her focus on software companies, with a whopping 90 companies in her portfolio. She also runs an entrepreneur industry blog, nearlynicole.com. Check her site out, and don’t miss Nicole Glaros at SXSW on Monday!

JOHN FRANKEL, ff VENTURE

John Frankel founded ff Venture Capital in 2008, and has invested in countless companies that have found their way to successful acquisitions. Frankel has been in the early stage startup investment industry since 1999 and built a diverse range of skills and experience during his 21 years at Goldman Sachs. He has held positions in financial management, tech development, and reengineering, and took on the responsibility of establishing Goldman’s Cayman offshore admin and global business markets. He has a proven track record in hedge funds in capital market sales, start-up investment, entrepreneurship and business development. HATCH pitch is honored to see John Frankel among our judge’s panel.

RAMI ESSAID, DISTIL NETWORKS

As the Co-Founder and CEO of Distil networks, the leader in bot detection and mitigation, Rami Essaid has raised over $1.9 million in seed stage funding, and expanded the firm’s infrastructure to over 15 global data centers. Essaid’s list of achievements also include being named an Entrepreneur to Watch by Under30CEO in 2012, 40 under 40 by Bisnow.com in 2014, and most notably, a past HATCH pitch winner (2012)! Rami Essaid is making waves in the online security industry and in entrepreneurship and we’re so excited to see him on the other side of the table!

DON DODGE, GOOGLE

Don Dodge is a Developer Advocate for Google, working with startups to adapt to Google technology; and a Director of Business Development for Microsoft, crafting the BizSpark program for startups and angel investors. His professional experience also includes being VP of Product Management & Development for companies like deNovis, Groove Networks, Bowstreet, Napster and HP. Dodge is a true visionary, with a long history of success in building and executing product development and technology. His skill set includes cloud computing, mobile apps, enterprise software, entrepreneurship and business development. We are so excited to see what Don Dodge thinks of our finalists!

We hope you’re as excited as we are for competition day, less than 24 hours away! Our finalists have worked tirelessly to prepare for tomorrow and we know our judges are eager to hear their pitches! If you haven’t already, Click below for more information on getting up to speed with the latest HATCHenings (HATCH happenings) so you’ll be sure to catch Patrick Eggen, Nichole Glaros, John Frankel, Rami Essaid, and Don Dodge. We’ll be live tweeting and instagramming the event, so be sure to follow along with us.

Hatch Pitch