TechVenture 2011 My Top Tech Startup Picks: Code School, Dropost.it, EventGrabber, and Row Sham Bow

TechVenture 2011 happened last Tuesday 12/6/11 at Hard Rock Live in Orlando, FL.

10 tech startups got to show got to demo their products to the crowd at TechVenture. I picked 4 Central Florida startups that impressed me at TechVenture.

Code School http://www.codeschool.com/
Code School is an online learning platform that teaches a variety of programming and web design skills. Real learning takes place when you start experimenting with code in the browser and using design concepts in a website. Screencast, Practice in browser, and fun gamification makes this  unique and sure to catch on. I think this would be an excellent way to get younger students (K12) interested the STEM fields. Their site is live and ready for you to play with. Sample a few basic courses for free or pay to add additional courses to advance your coding skills.

Dropost.it http://www.dropost.it/
Dropost.it allows user to leave gifts for friends at any location. We aim to bring back the emotional layer of gift giving. This goes beyond the normal gift card and allows you to redeem from a mobile devices. Also, it will allow you to record a video message to go along with the gift. Their website currently has a notification signup for when they launch.

Eventgrabber  http://www.eventgrabber.com/
Eventgrabber changes the way users experience local events. As an online advertising platform, Eventgrabber grabs all local events, automatically categorize them recommend our users events based on their personal preference. They were featured last week on Mashable’s Spark of Genius series too! http://on.mash.to/rV0g7r . Currently they are events based in Orlando with other cities coming in 2012.

Row Sham Bow http://www.rowshambow.com/
Row Sham Bow is a venture-backed game development studio founded by a veteran team with broad, game industry experience. Focused on developing for social networks and direct-to-consumer platforms, the company is creating fun and innovative games in collaboration with gaming audiences in unprecedented ways.

A current Facebook game is Woodland Heroes. Woodland Heroes is an exciting new action strategy game where you’ll lead your band of forest creatures to protect the forest from the evil King Bear and his oppressive armies. Expect more to come from this team, many who came marginally from EA Sports.

Which one of these companies will be hot in 2012?

Want to read the tweets from all those attending #techv2011 during the event? TweetReport #TechV2011