Artesian scales new heights at the Microsoft BizSpark Summit
May 01, 2010
Artesian Solutions, a cloud-based provider of sales intelligence software which accelerates sales performance for large B2B enterprise companies, was the joint winner at the Microsoft BizSpark 6th Annual European Summit, after claiming the top prize of €10,000 in the start-up pitching competition against 18 of Europe’s brightest and best early-stage companies. The Paris-based event, which focuses on growth and entrepreneurship, was packed to the rafters with venture capitalists and key industry commentators spanning across the breadth of Europe.
Each company had a 9 minute slot including Q&A from a panel of senior judges who each had a theoretical pot of money to invest. The most investable company scooped the prize which was presented by Guy Kawasaki – the Silicon Valley legend and VC, who served as Master of Ceremonies on the day.
As one of four UK representatives including Siondo, SharpCloud and MoneyDashboard, Artesian also competed against the likes of CaptainDash (founded by the serial entrepreneur Gilles Babinet) and French social game maker Kobojo, who already have 41 million users in the space of just two years.
After 18 fantastic presentations, the competition was so close that Microsoft decided to double the prize money and announce two joint-winners - Artesian and Kobojo - much to the delight of Artesian CEO and Co-Founder of Artesian, Andrew Yates.
‘We are ecstatic to win this prize and the recognition which goes with it especially in light of such strong competition. This program has been a great experience for us and I would like to thank the direct support we received from the Microsoft BizSpark team, Guidewire and even Guy Kawasaki himself who spent time with all of us on Monday afternoon', said Yates.
Mark Littlewood, the founder of the Business Leaders Network, was particularly impressed by the Artesian presentation. 'I would highlight Artesian as being exceptional' said Littlewood, who continued 'they target business-to-business markets, so are not as sexy as some of the consumer-targeted businesses but they are relentlessly focused on making money by solving a real problem for their customers. If pitching was a running race – Artesian lapped their competition two-fold today'
Artesian already has an impressive stable of blue-chip clients including a 1,000 user reference at Barclays Bank, SITA Suez, Business Stream, EPICOR and the American based JDA International - but Yates is predicting more equally significant scalps to come.
'It's nice to be regarded as hot! This award - together with the other honours we have recently received like the Gartner Cool Vendor Award for CRM and Microsoft BizSparkOne (top 100 Global program) - further illustrates the progress our team has made as a company and the interest we are seeing in the market for sales acceleration services”.
To learn more about the event go to the official Microsoft site.
Microsoft® BizSpark™ is a global program designed to help accelerate the success of early stage start-ups by providing key resources when they need it the most. There are over 40,000 companies in the global program