CapLinked invited entrepreneurs from across the globe to submit business plans for the right to present in an online pitch-off featuring an all-star panel of judges. And the winner is…

Mobile office phone system OnRelay came away the winner, as declared by CapLinked’s panel of all-star judges.

CapLinked provides companies, investors, and advisors with tools to network, manage a capital raise or asset sale, and exchange updates. CapLinked held the pitch competition to highlight some of the innovative companies using its site. Users were invited to submit their business plans for review, and the entrants were evaluated on their plan’s originality, strategy, and market opportunity.

Each finalist then presented in a live online pitch-off to a heavy-hitting panel of judges that included Alex Maleki (Idealab’s New Venture Group), Jim Andelman (Rincon Venture Partners), Chris Yeh (Silicon Valley angel investor), and Steph Paternot (Slated). The winners were as follows:

1^st Place: OnRelay — smartphone-based corporate phone system

2^nd Place: Cadreas — construction project management and collaboration software

Runner-Up: NeverWork – online job matching platform for hiring managers

Runner-Up: EnterpriseAdvance – platform with multiple functionability for businesses

“As a serial entrepreneur and a veteran from PayPal, I know how important it is to have a strong network when you’re starting and raising funds for a business,” says CapLinked CEO Eric M. Jackson. “Our goal in organizing this contest was to highlight new companies with innovative approaches to real-world program. We’re thrilled with the quality of the competitors. All of the finalists did an amazing job.”

“We were excited to be invited to present at the CapLinked pitch competition before such an esteemed panel of judges, and we are of course delighted to win,” said Ivar Plahte, CEO of OnRelay. “Hats off to CapLinked for putting together such a smooth event and giving a growth company such as ours a chance to get valuable feedback and exposure.”

Since its public launch last year, CapLinked has skyrocketed to over 100,000 user accounts and $20 billion in private investment deals. The company was co-founded by Eric M. Jackson (PayPal’s first head of US marketing and author of the book “The PayPal Wars”) and Christopher Grey (former managing director at a subsidiary of Emigrant Bank, the largest privately owned bank in the country). Investors in the company include members of the so-called “PayPal Mafia.”

All of the finalists will be profiled on CapLinked’s blog and monthly newsletter. As the 1^st place winner, OnRelay will also be interviewed by TechZulu and receive a free advice session from CapLinked’s founding team.

The International Business Awards are the only global, all-encompassing business awards program honoring great performances in business. Nicknamed the Stevie® for the Greek word “crowned,” the awards will be presented to honorees at a gala event on Tuesday, 11 October.

Honorees were selected from more than 3,000 entries received from organizations and individuals in more than 40 nations.   Honorees were determined through two rounds of judging by close to 200 professionals worldwide.

Executive of the Year – Telecommunications
STEVIE AWARD WINNER:
BT Group, London, United Kingdom: Ian Livingston, CEO

DISTINGUISHED HONOREES:
Etisalat Misr, Cairo, Egypt: Eng. Saleh Al-Abdooli, CEO
Hellenic Telecom, Athens, Greece: Michael Tsamaz, Chairman & CEO
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, Shenzhen, China: Yafang Sun, Chairwoman
Maroc Telecom, Rabat, Morocco: Abdeslam Ahizoune, Chairman and President
OnRelay London, United Kingdom: Marie Wold, President & CFO
Portugal Telecom, Lisbon, Portugal: Zeinal Bava, CEO
SK Telecom Co., Ltd., Seoul, South Korea: Ha Sung-Min, President
Turk Telekom, Istanbul, Turkey: K. Gökhan Bozkurt, CEO
Ufone PTML – Etisalat, Islamabad, Pakistan: Mr. Abdul Aziz, President and CEO
XLN Telecom, Burgess Hill, United Kingdom: Christian Nellemann, CEO

“Entries to The International Business Awards grew by more than 80% this year, and that illustrates the increasing importance of the IBAs worldwide,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards, presenters of the IBAs.  “We congratulate all of the honorees, and we look forward to recognizing them for their achievements at our gala event in October.”

“I am very proud of the recognition Marie has received for all of her ground-breaking and strategic work in our field,” says Ivar Plahte, CEO of OnRelay.  “Telecoms is a market that demands tenacity and ingenuity – something that she has in spades.  Marie is now successfully spearheading our entry into the US market, using our proven technology and cloud computing to turn Managed Service Providers into telcos – a disruptive twist on the telecoms space.”

Entrepreneur, startup executive, business developer, management consultant, analyst and economist with background from Deloitte (Braxton), US Trade Commission, US Foreign Service and law firm Wilmer Cutler and Pickering. Marie started Deloitte Research EMEA, and while at Braxton, Deloitte, she devised mobile voice / data strategies for tier 1 operators in Europe, Asia, Africa and the US.  Previously, as a telecom analyst for the US executive branch, she supported the 1997 WTO agreement on Telecommunications.  Marie did Economics at Johns Hopkins SAIS, St Catherine’s Collage, Oxford and University of North Dakota (her home state).

You can see more about Marie at: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=hb_tab_pro_top

Complete lists of honorees and other details are available at www.stevieawards.com/iba.

About OnRelay
OnRelay is a private software company specializing in mobile telephony software deployed in the cloud. The company lists Tier 1 operators and servicer providers as customers and partners. OnRelay’s Mobile Cloud Exchange (MCX) is an all-software, cloud based, mobile office phone system designed for service provider hosting.  Working with service providers, OnRelay offers a convergence solution, which allows companies to replace desk phones with mobile phones. By integrating MCX with the leading open source IP PBX, sipXecs, OnRelay offers businesses a complete fixed and mobile telephony system. OnRelay’s patented Telephony Internetworking Protocol (TINP) is a lightweight protocol designed to work over any cellular network, worldwide. For additional information, visit OnRelay at www.onrelay.com.

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.  Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

Location hosting patron for The 2011 International Business Awards is the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates.  Premier sponsors include IBM Netezza and Smart Reader® Worldwide.  The Korea Business Communicators Association is the national sponsor for South Korea.  Localization sponsor of the 2011 Stevie Awards is SDL.  Location hosting supporters of the 2011 IBAs include Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industries, Dana Gas, the Gemological Institute of America and The International Business Times.

Contact:

Lisa-Marie Gibbons

info@onrelay.com

Enter Elizabeth House using the South Entrance just before Leake Street.

Arriving by Train into Waterloo
Take the exit for the South Bank. Before the covered walkway take the stairs down marked Elizabeth House. Walk along York Street past the main entrance to the South Entrance.

London Underground
Take the Bakerloo, Northern or Jubilee line to Waterloo. Use the South Bank/St. Thomas’ Hospital exit. Cross York Road.

Arriving by Car
There are car parks sign posted near to Waterloo station. Please note that the area is inside the congestion charging zone.

“We are very impressed with Scale Matrix, who represents exactly the type of distribution partner we are looking for in the US”, says Marie Wold, OnRelay’s President & CFO.  “Scale Matrix combines a significant experience in telecoms with state of the art cloud computing know how, and they have the datacenter facilities and operations team to back up a rapid expansion and growth of the service. We were frankly blown away by how quickly ScaleMatrix was able to wrap our server in their AppLogic cloud platform with limited support from ourselves’’.

“This partnership brings significant advantages to the customers of both OnRelay and ScaleMatrix,” said Mark Ortenzi, CEO, ScaleMatrix. “OnRelay’s packaging of world-class virtual PBX gives us something timely and important to deliver to our private-cloud.”

OnRelay is with this agreement also announcing the establishment of its new US office in San Francisco.  “As a European fixed mobile convergence pioneer, we have over the last 2 years been immensely impressed by how quickly the US has caught up and overtaken Europe in the mobile space”, says Ivar Plahte, OnRelay’s CEO. “Led by Apple and Google, US has turned the mobile market on its head into an ecosystem driven by smartphones, mobile apps, 3^rd party developers and now also cloud computing. We have been betting on a more open telecom market for years, and needless to say, we are very pleased about this development and want to ensure we are right in the middle of it”.

OnRelay’s Mobile Cloud Exchange (MCX) will be available to ScaleMatrix customers and partners shortly.  Interested parties please contact:

ScaleMatrix:
ScaleMatrix is a Private Cloud Solutions Provider (PCSP) with expertise in Colocation and Dedicated Server technology. ScaleMatrix was founded with the intent to design, deploy and manage the best Private Cloud solutions available. ScaleMatrix can satisfy small start-ups to Fortune 500 enterprises by leveraging the years of knowledge, infrastructure, strategic partnerships, and technology. ScaleMatrix architects, deploys, and manages their entire solution in any one of the 11 data centers they occupy across the United States or in a customer’s own private data center. For additional information, visit ScaleMatrix at www.scalematrix.com.  

OnRelay:
OnRelay is a private software company specializing in mobile telephony software deployed in the cloud. The company lists Tier 1 operators and servicer providers as customers and partners. OnRelay’s Mobile Cloud Exchange (MCX) is an all-software, cloud based, mobile office phone system designed for service provider hosting.  Working with service providers, OnRelay offers a convergence solution, which allows companies to replace desk phones with mobile phones. By integrating MCX with the leading open source IP PBX, sipXecs, OnRelay offers businesses a complete fixed and mobile telephony system. OnRelay’s patented Telephony Internetworking Protocol (TINP) is a lightweight protocol designed to work over any cellular network, worldwide. For additional information, visit OnRelay at www.onrelay.com

OnRelay is seeking a San Francisco / Silicon Valley based VP of Sales with responsibility for US wide sales towards the Service Provider segment.

OnRelay’s Mobile Cloud Exchange technology was recently launched by Swisscom in Europe as their Hosted Corporate Phone product (see www.swisscom.ch/solutions/solutions-products/hosted-corporate-phone).

The company is establishing a US office in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it is looking to replicate this model with US managed and cloud service providers.  The company has already concluded its first US service provider engagement.

The successful candidate must have a proven track record selling to the US service provider segment, and be capable of leading a sales team from the front.  Startup experience is a must.

Compensation is results oriented, with significant stock incentives and commissions on offer.

Desired Skills & Experience

Domain knowledge within cloud computing, mobile / wireless / cellular / smartphone technologies, unified communications, telecoms and / or IP PBX systems.

Company Description

OnRelay is a private software company specializing in mobile telephony software deployed in the cloud. The company lists Tier 1 operators and servicer providers as customers and partners.

OnRelay’s Mobile Cloud Exchange (MCX) is an all-software, cloud based, mobile office phone system designed for service provider hosting.  Working with service providers, OnRelay offers a Convergence solution, which allows companies to replace desk phones with mobile phones. By integrating MCX with the leading open source IP PBX, sipXecs, OnRelay offers businesses a complete fixed and mobile telephony system.  OnRelay’s patented Telephony Internetworking Protocol (TINP) is a lightweight protocol designed to work over any cellular network, worldwide.

OnRelay is a US Delaware C Corporation.

To apply for this role please send your resume and covering letter to jobs@onrelay.com

OnRelay and Swisscom announced their partnership earlier this year, with an agreement for Swisscom to resell OnRelay’s Mobile Cloud Exchange to its business customers. MCX forms the core component of Swisscom’s Communications as a Service (CaaS) offering.

OnRelay has certified MCX on Swisscom’s SIP Trunking service, VoIP Gate.

More information about Swisscom’s Hosted Corporate Phone service can be found at www.swisscom.ch/solutions/solutions-products/hosted-corporate-phone.

If you are a carrier or Managed Service Provider and are interested in more information about MCX, please contact OnRelay at +44 207 902 8100 or at sales@onrelay.com.