Twenty-something CEOs took the floor at the Innovation Campus on Wednesday as potential investors came to seek out the next big thing in start-up land.
Among the new ideas being pitched were an F1 motorsport game for mobile phones and Social Status, an app that compares the extent to which audiences engage with social media posts.
The app takes publicly available data from Facebook and other sources and aggregates it, so subscribers can easily compare how posts in social media are performing in terms of clicks, comments and shares.
The brainchild of 29-year-old ad agency alumni Tim Hill, it was intended for the marketing world.
"[Market researcher] Neilsen recently released statistics showing some markets are spending more on digital than TV advertising," said Mr Hill, Social Status' CEO.
"With all those ad dollars moving to social media, this kind of analytics tool can help businesses to really see the value.
Mr Hill's pitch, at UOW's iAccelerate Pitch and Demo Day, was aimed more at attracting skilled staff than dollars. Chief technical officer Robert O'Farrell is to date Social Status' only other employee.
"[The pitch] is to help us move faster," Mr Hill said. "In this space of social media there's so much competition, there's change all the time. If we could double our workforce . . . it would help us gain traction."
The pitch event is the third run by iAccelerate, UOW's business incubator and accelerator.
It drew potential investors from Artesian Capital Management, Tank Stream Ventures, M H Carnegie, OneVentures, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, KPMG, plus angel investors.
Seven entrepreneurs were chosen to present after a long process of whittling down the best ideas to come out of the incubator.
UOW Innovation Development senior manager Melissa Ryan said speaking spots were valued by new entrepreneurs.
"More than anything it's about connections," she said.
"Connections they would be unable to make on their own, or take months or years, are formed very quickly in this room."
