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We all know that AI is the future - but which start-ups are the future of AI?
On 9 July, the finalists of the Paddle AI Launchpad accelerator program took part in a public Demo Day event. From AI-led podcast scanning to AI-enabled data interaction, 10 early- stage AI founders pitched their ground-breaking ideas to our expert judging panel for the $20,000 cash prize.
You can watch the Demo Day recording here. Scroll on for all the results…
What is the Paddle AI Launchpad?
The AI space is increasingly competitive with around 10,000 AI startups receiving over $1.5 million of investment in the last decade. But attracting funding is only one piece of the wider puzzle. AI entrepreneurs not only need to build their innovative AI product, but need support monetizing their AI software to create a sustainable AI business. That’s why Paddle set up the AI Launchpad accelerator: a 6-week program aimed at empowering ambitious AI software founders to build, launch and scale their AI-powered business ideas.
How were the 2024 Demo Day finalists chosen?
Following the success of the inaugural AI Launchpad program in 2023, we received hundreds of applications for the program in the first half of 2024. Of these, we selected 129 promising AI start-ups to take part in the program in May 2024.
Each participating start-up gained access to tailored guidance and practical insights from industry experts during the program. Then, founders submitted their pitch decks and demos for evaluation by a panel of Launchpad leads, select partners, and Paddle leadership, and the top ten were chosen to pitch their ideas on a public Demo Day on 9 July.
Each of the finalists would have three minutes to virtually pitch their idea to our judges (and live audience) and three minutes of Q&A from our expert investor-led judging panel which included:
- Christian Owens, Founder, Paddle
- Alex Theuma, General Partner, BackFuture VC
- Maria Palma, Investor, Kindred Capital
- Federico Wengi, Partner, SquareOne VC
Who were the 10 finalists?
The concept of Demo Day was simple: 10 ground-breaking ideas. 10 start-up founders. One $20,000 cash prize.
Hailing from across the globe, the ten finalists included:
- Supaboard - Enables you to build custom analytics and chat with your data (i.e. ‘give me a chart to understand bulk orders’) without writing a single line of code.
- Podscan - Scans over 35,000 new podcast episodes every day to catch mentions of you or your competitors.
- Tailoredpod - Provides a personalized podcast or newsletter at the start of every day based on news stories aligned with your interests.
- UXWizz - Monitors your website analytics (i.e. heatmaps revealing homepage popularity) and provides in-depth insights from a self-hosted platform.
- Render AI - Transforms hand-drawn sketches and images into high-quality digital renderings using AI.
- Podscribe - Transcribes, takes notes, and provides summaries of key podcast content, turning hours of audio into structured knowledge data.
- Trevor AI - Provides personalized scheduling suggestions and task lists by organizing all your daily and weekly tasks into one integrated task hub.
- Engyne - Uses relevant keywords to write B2B SaaS blog content, publishes the blogs to your website and creates content plans.
- SEOwind - Creates AI-written articles and content outlines based on your detailed input, including your brand identity and tone of voice.
- Vanna.AI - Enables you to ask questions directly to your SQL database, getting answers in the form of tables, charts or comprehensive analysis.
Who were the winners?
At the end of the virtual session, there wasn’t only one winner - but two.
Overall Demo Day Winner: Vanna AI, founded by Zain Hoda
“The Paddle AI Launchpad was instrumental in shaping Vanna's growth strategy. The Masterclasses in the program provided invaluable insights into critical areas like pricing strategy, marketing approaches, and defining our value metrics. Meanwhile, the community created a collaborative environment where we could exchange ideas and receive direct feedback on everything from pitch decks to pricing pages and marketing copy. This comprehensive support has been crucial in refining our business model and go-to-market strategy. I’m very grateful to Paddle for having us as part of this year’s AI Launchpad and Demo Day, and extremely proud to have been awarded this year's prize.”
- Zain Hoda, founder, Vanna AI
People’s Choice Award: Podscan, founded by Arvid Kahl
"Come because of the tech, stay for the people. Paddle accomplished something magical with the AI Launchpad cohort: they assembled a group of founders who collaborated and inspired each other while building competing AI products. I learned so much about leadership, setting goals, and product experimentation — lessons that immediately impacted Podscan and its trajectory."
- Arvid Kahl, founder, Podscan
Want to take part in the next Demo Day?
Have a game-changing AI-focused idea?
The Paddle AI Launchpad is not just about the cash prize. All participants have the chance to speak to founders in similar positions, work with AI investors and hone their pitching techniques. On top of that, every participant also gets:
- Exclusive access to the Launchpaddlers community - A hub for Launchpad alumni and new members to network and share resources.
- Additional partner benefits - Perks from Paddle's partners, including up to $350,000 in Google Cloud credits, $25k in credit from AWS Activate, special credits to Notion and Mercury, and access to dedicated AI resources.
- Paddle mentorship - Personalized guidance from industry experts at Paddle around monetizing your AI product.
For instance, last year’s winner, real-estate AI platform Virtual Staging AI, switched its payment strategies following its involvement in the program and increased its monthly revenue 10x from $20,000 to $200,000.
Meanwhile, finalist SiteGPT hit its first $100k revenue month after taking part in the program and Aibo experienced 60% user growth during the program.
