Advice for Founders:

- In strategic partnership conversations, always be sure to exercise reciprocity. In other words: ask the person you're seeking help from what THEY need. People in powerful positions (VCs, angels, etc.) are frequently asked for favors. Demonstrate professional sensitivity by showing that you care about what they want, too.

- Coachability and confidence: strike the balance. Investors like a confident, willful founder -- but arrogance is a major turn-off. Be conscious of the fact that venture capitalists have bucketloads of knowledge, and no matter how experienced you may be, they will always have something to teach you.

- Don't be a fair-weather entrepreneur. Now that the innovation space is booming, venture capitalists are seeing more and more corporate players move into entrepreneurship. While this move is sometimes spurred by legitimate passion, other times it is merely because entrepreneurship is a today's trendy profession. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, a hunger for innovation needs to run in your bloodstream. Faking it will only lead to failure.

- Your CEO should be your best salesperson. If your CEO can't sell it, no one can. So be sure that your leadership is actively at the helm of your business development team, and willing to get in the trenches to keep the lights on. 

- Put skin in the game. All startup founders do (or should) already know this: but in order to get investment, you must first invest in yourself. If you won't shell out money for your own venture, you'll have a hard time convincing VC's to do so. Make sure your startup is worth your own money, before asking for it from others. 

Star Startup: 

Our star startup of the evening was Audiosnaps! Audiosnaps offers a new way to create user generated content -- capturing photos of important moments, and overlaying them with 5 seconds of sound from those moments.

From a brand perspective, short term video/disposable content trends like Vine and Snapchat are useful for momentary impressions. However, an Audiosnaps creation -- normal photography, paired with sound -- is a timeless, yet innovative option for lifestage-relevant and travel brands. 

This technology is also ripe for partnerships with other startups. We could easily see a beautiful collaboration between Audiosnaps and conductive ink company Novalia to create interactive, lasting photo albums to better collect precious memories. 

Wherever Audiosnaps goes, its future is looking bright. We'll be keeping an eye on it!