TechCrunch Disrupt Start-up Battlefield Live Blog (Round 1)

This is a part of our TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 event coverage. See other rounds from Startup Battlefield here.

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#14:42: Heather Hardy says “Nimen Hao.” (Hello in Chinese). No tones, but still a nice touch for the home audience, who’ve been listening to English for the past few hours. [CC]

#14:45: Today, over 400 applicants whittled down to 17 finalists. Come from all over China and also the rest of the world. Winners get $50,000 and a trophy. Companies can present for six minutes, then answer questions from the judges, who are experienced VCs and entrepreneurs. Richard Robinson (entrepreneur and VC) will be MCing the event. He comes onto the stage with some volume, presence, and pretty good Chinese. “Beijing is one of the best places on earth to start a company” he says. “Beijing is now in my blood….which is mostly because of the pollution.” [CC]

#14:46: Robinson now making some jokes in Chinese. Hard to translate, but they got some laughs from the crowd. The room needed this energy. Now introducing judges. [CC]

#14:47: udge #1: Rocky Lee (Cadwalader) Judge #2: Wallace Pai (Motorola Mobilty) Judge #3: John Lagerling (Google) Judge #4: Benjamin Joffe ….Joffe is a change from what’s in the program. We wonder what happened to Hans Tung? [CC]

#14:48: Ok, time for company #1: Richi Inc. Wow, introduction followed by a pretty awkward pause, which the audience saved with applause. Tech issue? [CC]

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1. Richi

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#14:51: In life, you earn credits for everything….airline flights, coffeeshops, etc. Those credits expire fast, and it’s hard to get enough of them. On the other hand, credit card rewards are easier to use. “Why aren’t credits as convenient as credit cards?” Because they’re not open, not exchangeable, and expire easily. Richi’s goal is to make all these “credits” open. [CC]

#14:52: Richi will set exchange rates in collaboration with partners so that credits can be exchanged. Presenters are showing a live demo on the website. Go to site, choose which credits you have, which one you want, and enter your info. You also seem to need to connect it to bank. Kind of complicated, but it took them less than two minutes to do the whole thing, so not too bad. [CC]

#14:54: They also have a mobile version, so credits can be exchanged anywhere. This helps users, but also benefits partners by allowing them to connect globally by integrating with Richi. Richi charges a transaction fee for exchanges, which is how they make their money. Richi is based in Taiwan. Now time for them to answer questions from the judges!

You talk about being global, what are your key markets? We’re starting in Taiwan, which we know best, then moving into China. Then we’ll move on from there, but we have to make the connections one by one. Next, they will offer an open API to help merchants connect to their service. [CC]

#14:55: What is the benefit of opening this kind of exchange system? They help connect companies to new clients without having to spend a ton on acquisition.

This is basically a new kind of virtual currency. But how do you plan to motivate airlines and other companies to sign up for the service when they’d prefer to have control? Richi presenters say this will raise the value of their loyalty programs by adding new customers. [CC]

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