{"id":576988,"date":"2010-05-24T21:00:25","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T01:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=121969"},"modified":"2010-05-24T21:00:25","modified_gmt":"2010-05-25T01:00:25","slug":"announcing-the-structure-2010-launchpad-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/576988","title":{"rendered":"Announcing the Structure 2010 Launchpad Finalists!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vishal Sikka (SAP) joins Stacey onstage at Structure 2009.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I can’t open my email these days without seeing a new cloud-based startup pitch (or three). Meanwhile, startups offering everything from platforms as a service to various ways to bridge hybrid clouds are raising venture capital<\/a> (GigaOM Pro, sub req’d) after a fairly fallow period for investment, and large buyers are scooping up more mature startups<\/a> left and right. Which is why this year at Structure 2010, we’re adding a new feature: the Launchpad.<\/p>\n

Veteran attendees to GigaOM events will recognize the format from our Mobilize<\/a> conference and our green IT-focused Green:Net<\/a> as the session when startups launch — or launch their products or services — to a room full of VCs, industry players and financial press<\/a>. Two awards will be given: an audience choice award (determined by SMS voting) and a judges’ selection.<\/p>\n

So after much deliberation and consideration, today we announce our Launchpad 11. It was meant to be 10, but we had such a hard time choosing, we just increased the finalists to 11. They are:<\/p>\n