TalentTrail, CardBox win at LA Tech Summit 2014 - CSOD

December 18, 2014

TalentTrail and CardBox Named LA Tech Summit 2014 Shark Tank Winners

SANTA MONICA, Calif., December 18, 2014 – Los Angeles’ up-and-coming startups went head to head in two Shark Tank pitch competitions at last week’s LA Tech Summit, with TalentTrail and CardBox coming out on top, event organizer Cornerstone OnDemand announced today.

TalentTrail, represented by co-founder Sydney Liu, was selected as the winner in a Shark Tank competition featuring leading university startups. The company’s platform matches students with internships, and is currently based at the University of Southern California. TalentTrail offers companies simple, customized career pages that showcase its internship opportunities to students throughout Southern California. As part of winning the university startup Shark Tank, TalentTrail received a $5,000 cash prize.

CardBox, represented by co-founders Rishi Roongta and Scott Hoyt, was selected as the winner in a Shark Tank competition featuring emerging startups from local incubators and accelerators. CardBox has designed a platform that makes the ability to be thoughtful more convenient, joyful and price effective by disrupting the long lasting tradition of giving physical greeting cards through a layer of technology to appeal to millennials and the next generation of young buyers. CardBox walked away with a $10,000 cash prize as part of winning the emerging startups Shark Tank.

“The quality of this year’s group of Shark Tank participants exemplifies the tremendous headway Los Angeles continues to make as a rising global hub for technology innovation,” said Chirag Shah, senior director of corporate development and strategic planning, Cornerstone OnDemand. “The winners – TalentTrail and CardBox – are amongst the most unique young companies in our local community with exciting potential, and we look forward to watching them continue to progress.”

Other Los Angeles startups competing in the Shark Tank competitions included:

  • Playfull, a mobile game that provides points redeemable at local restaurants, based out of the University of California, Los Angeles

  • Clutter, a self-storage service that picks up, stores and returns personal items on-demand

  • Handstand, a mobile application that allows users to book personal trainers

  • Jogg, a mobile application that lets individuals request and curate videos from their online community

The six young companies pitched their stories and future plans during a main stage session held live in front of hundreds of conference attendees and two separate panels of judges. Moderated by Cody Simms, managing director of Techstar’s Disney Accelerator, each panel shared commentary and feedback on the presenting companies. The university startup panel was judged by Richard Wolpert, managing director, Amplify; Dave Fink, partner, Science; and Erik Rannala, co-founder and managing partner, Mucker Capital. The judges of the emerging startups panel included Dave Travers, co-founder, Basepoint Ventures; Brian Garrett, co-founder, Crosscut Ventures; Matt McCall, partner, Pritzker Group; and Eva Ho, partner, Susa Ventures. The scoring also included a real-time audience vote for the favorite startup after each session.

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