Software,' a bot for enterprises to help companies digest their internal information Daymaker, a platform for kids to give to others in need Issue Voter, a Wikipedia for Legislation and Omnivirt, an AR/VR ad platform for brands and publishers. The other four finalist companies ranged across industries: 'A.I.

'So I hope they are as involved as possible and we can really use them a distribution channel, since everyone knows their name.' Ashton has made a bunch of investments in like Acorn, so I knew that he had experience there and understood the industry,' Liebman told CNBC. LearnLux's Liebman said the investment could be a game changer. For us it's really about investing in people we want to stand by, go to war with, battle with and build something great that's really impactful,' said Kutcher, speaking about LearnLux CEO and co-founder Rebecca Liebman. But we have a founder first principle for the things we invest in. 'When you see a company on paper, it can look really good. The competition was for a $100,000 investment, but Kutcher and his team were so enthusiastic, that they upped Sound Ventures' investment to $200,000, and Benioff invested an additional $200,000 as well. 'We've been coming to SXSW for years, but actually doing something that is meaningful for companies, that actually shows and inspires the entrepreneurial spirit across the country in every market,' he added. What we wanted to do was recognize and realize that companies come from everywhere…they come from the Midwest, the south, come from all across the world,' said Kutcher in an interview after the competition wrapped up. 'We are based in L.A., we see a ton of companies out of San Francisco and New York. In addition to Kutcher and Oseary, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and actor Matthew McConaughey also judged the competition.

Hundreds of people attending SXSW filed into a restaurant in downtown Austin to watch the CEOs do a quick two-minute presentation to a panel of judges, after which they peppered them with questions for six minutes. This year, the actor and Guy Oseary, his fellow partner at Sound Ventures, hosted a startup competition called Perfect Pitch for early-stage entrepreneurs.Īfter over 200 companies applied, the list was whittled down to five companies. Kutcher has been a fixture at SXSW for years.

Effie epstein