The deadline for nominations for live demos of products on stage at HeadStart 2009 closed on 7th December. All nominations were reviewed by an expert panel and 22 products have been selected for the demo pit (booths). While 10-12 out of these 22 companies will demo their products live on stage, each one of them will get a demo booth at the venue and get opportunities for face-to-face meetings with investors.
The names of the finalists who get to demo on stage will be announced on the 9th of January at the event. The following companies have qualified for the Demo pit.
Cashnext is founded by serial entrepreneurs Anish Achutan and Rameena Rabeedin (who are still in their 20s). Cashnext builds products such as low cost ATMs, smart teller machines, P-O-S terminals, a mobile payment and branchless banking gateway.
CinnamonTeal Print and Publishing provides services for individuals and institutions that wish to self-publish. These services include editing, proof reading, cover design, page layout, translation, digitization, factual research and other similar services. The digital print-on-demand service is central to their service and can do print runs from one to more than 500.
Entrip tries to solve the main pain-point for consumers in online travel – the lack of usability and user friendliness on the (online travel) web, as well as in the fragmentation of online travel service. EnTrip has developed a new kind of web application and user interface: completely Map based and interactive to overcome this problem.
Biokleen Labs manufactures natural, non-toxic cleaning products for home or business use. Biokleen products are concentrated in order to leave the smallest footprint on the environment and deliver exceptional quality, value and results without negative effects to the user or the environment. The products are biodegradable, release no harsh fumes and are gentle to sensitive skin.
SnappyFingers is a Question and Answer search engine. It crawls and indexes FAQs on the Internet and displays search results in a easy to view Question/Answer format. The site is in beta, and has a database of approximately 10 million questions. SnappyFingers uses Amazon Web Services such as EC2 and S3 to build a generic framework which is scalable and fault tolerant.
Verismo Networks is redefining the home television experience by bringing millions of free internet videos around the world directly to your TV — all of this without a computer. Verismo’s VuNow platform transforms the TV set into a powerful multimedia hub with an unbelievable level of choice and ease in accessing digital entertainment. Verismo Networks is a privately held company based in Mountain View, California, with offices in Bangalore, India
CashURdrive is India’s first and only “On-Vehicle Advertising Company”. People can put promotional corporate stickers on their self-owned vehicles by signing up with CashURdrive and go by their daily routines. The vehicle mileage is verified using satellite tracking and the car owners are reimbursed with free fuel at HPCL and BPCL fuel pumps.
Ktwo is a innovative product based company based in Bangalore employing more than 250 people. KTWO specialises in last metre connectivity products which cater to the healthcare, logistics and automotive industry verticals. Ktwo will demo Kspeak – a bluetooth-based hands-free car kit.
Netprice is a award winning startup (Red Herring Asia 100 Winner, Red Herring Global 100 Finalist 2008). Their product AdoRoi is a solution to advertisers for measuring the ROI of all media types on a single platform which makes performance of conventional ads comparable to performance of online ads in real time. AdoRoi business method is patent pending in USA and copyrighted in India.
Artin Dynamics is a company delivering products in the AI domain. Their product SPARA helps companies save and manage power costs related to computers and peripherals. It is capable of conducting high level power management features like monitor control, core handling, CPU throttling as well as the normal power management options like Hibernate, Shut down, Standby on a distributed network. The hardware unit works on patented technology known as ETL or Enhanced Trigger Loop and interfaces with the computer using a USB port.
AuthWave Technologies is a Bangalore based consumer security software startup. They have developed a fundamentally new approach to Internet security. AuthWave’s MobiAuth product is a mobile based integrated two-factor user authentication and transaction security solution to protect online portals against all threats including most sophisticated phishing and malware attacks.
MeshLabs Inc.™ is a developer of software solutions that discover and deliver concept-based personalized knowledge from any given content source. Meshlab’s solutions are built using emerging technologies in the areas of semantic web, human-machine synergy, enterprise 2.0, and social networking. For enterprises, MeshLabs offers eZi™ as a standalone or add-on solution in license and SaaS model. Consumers on the web are offered ZiMesh™, our semantic PKM service at www.zimesh.com (currently in private beta).
Taroby is a SaaS based messaging and collaboration suite that enables sharing of email accounts among team members. “Sharing” implies that emails are accessible to all team members working on a particular assignment or project, with the possibility to assign messages directly to individual team members.
WisdomTap is based out of Bangalore. WisdomTap helps users decide which product to buy based on their unique needs. At the same time, it helps online retailers increase sales by converting more browsers to buyers. Wisdomtap crawls the best social media sources to generate impartial product reviews, ratings and recommendation, based on patent pending algorithms. Users access this decision making information via the web, the retailer website and the mobile phone.
iDuple is a self-funded startup. iDuple’s Small Business Startup Kit is a SaaS[Software as a Service] product, where customers only need to pay a particular amount every month to subscribe to the service. The package includes all the necessary web softwares required for a startup or SME. This package makes the life of any startup or SME easier as they do not need to worry about the IT infrastructure anymore, and thus they can concentrate on their core business.
Indusgeeks is India’s first and largest Virtual Worlds’ Development and Services company based in Mumbai. 
We create 3D immersive spaces on the Internet for Education and Training, Marketing and Communications
and Virtual Events. Metamersive Learning Spaces is a solution developed by Indusgeeks to address the enterprise, higher education and K-12 market. MLS looks to improve delivery of education and
training through interactive, multi-user, real time virtual spaces. MLS will be available under both the Software as a Service (SaaS) and Licensed software models.
TringMe is the world leader in web-based telephony and was the first one to demonstrate flash-based telephony. 
It provides a carrier grade unified communications platform which handles over 20 million calls
every month. TringMe’s vision has been provide easy to use APIs to developers so that they can quickly, reliably and tightly integrate voice in web and mobile applications.
SysNucleus build products and solutions in the system software space. 
Sysnucleus has expertise in areas like Windows device drivers, USB, Bluetooth, Virtual device drivers, Wireless sensor networks and other embedded related software. They are self funded and based out of Cochin, Kerala and will demo their product USBTrace.
Kreeo is a user-driven collective intelligence and semantics based knowledge management platform for both individuals and enterprise. 
Kreeo enables sharing and collaboration in knowledge ecosystems to enhance productivity. Kreeo is provided as Open Web and Enterprise Suite. Kreeo Enterprise is provided as SaaS or Captive Implementation model along with customization and content related services.
JobeeHive.com is a unique professional-social network focused around employer and salary information. 
JobeeHive.com enables users to rate/review companies (they have worked for), research on salaries or
a prospective employer as well as get more info about a company – be it job offers, announcements, business opportunities, etc.
Alertpedia.com is a comprehensive online alerting service for delivering the right information at the right time. 
You specify what you like to be alerted about (e.g., bike on sale on Bangalore Craigslist, food recalls). alertpedia monitors several reliable online sources, and alerts you over SMS/Email when the relevant event
happens. Alertpedia is a self-funded start-up based out of Bangalore and New Jersey.
WOLF is a 100% browser based Web Application Designing & Development Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for creating mashable and interoperable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Business Applications on the internet
without writing a single line of technical code. It provides a quick, easy, flexible and cost effective way of building customized web applications, targeted towards Business Users.
Travelgrid is a product by Channel mentor that helps automate the travel policy process. 
Channel Mentor has widened the scope of the product to include visa request, insurance request and guest house room inventory. The Travelgrid product is delivered using the SaaS model.