Proud of New York Startups

Yesterday evening, NY Tech Meetup and CEA LineShows organized an event to pick a startup that would receive a free booth at the next CES.  I don’t know how the presenting companies were chosen, but whoever did the initialy seleciton did a wonderful job of representing the diversity and accomplishment of NY startups.  There was both hardware (Peek and MakerBot) and software/service (Livestream, Aviary, drop.io).  There were all levels of funding from bootstrapped ramen-fed MakerBot to double-digit millions for Livestream.  There was laserfocused Peek and broadly ambitious Aviary.  But all of the companies had accomplished a lot.  Even the newest entrant, MakerBot, has already accomplished something impressive by creating a kit that lets folks assemble a 3D printing machine.  It was a tough choice for the panel which included Engadget’s Joshua Fruhlinger, Anyclip’s Aaron Cohen and myself.  Thankfully, at the last second the CEA agreed to sponsor not one but two startups which made the task quite a bit easier.  In the end, we picked Aviary and MakerBot as the two companies as the best fit for the CES opportunity (taking into account many factors, including who had already been there).